Mobile Phone Use and Mental Health. A Review of the Research That Takes a Psychological Perspective on Exposure.

Sara Thomée

doi:10.3390/ijerph15122692

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to carry out a review of observational studies that consider links between mobile phone use and mental health from a psychological or behavioral perspective. Systematic literature searches in PubMed and PsycINFO for articles published until 2017 were done. Exclusion criteria included: papers that considered radiofrequency fields, attention, safety, relational consequences, sexual behavior, cyberbullying, and reviews, qualitative, and case or experimental studies. A total of 4738 papers were screened by title and abstract, 404 were retrieved in full text, and 290 were included. Only 5% had any longitudinal design. Self-reporting was the dominating method of measurement. One third of the studies included children or youth. A majority of adult populations consisted of university students and/or self-selected participants. The main research results included associations between frequent mobile phone use and mental health outcomes, such as depressive symptoms and sleep problems. Mobile phone use at bedtime was associated with, e.g., shorter sleep duration and lower sleep quality. “Problematic use” (dependency) was associated with several negative outcomes. In conclusion, associations between mobile phone use and adverse mental health outcomes are found in studies that take a psychological or behavioral perspective on the exposure. However, more studies of high quality are needed in order to draw valid conclusions about the mechanisms and causal directions of associations.

Highlights

Mobile phones have over only a few decades revolutionized how we communicate, interact, search for information, work, do chores, and pass time
Papers that considered radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF), attention or safety, consequences for relationships, sexual behavior, cyberbullying, as well as papers that were qualitative, case or experimental studies, literature reviews, or duplicates, were excluded. This left 404 articles to be retrieved in full text for evaluation. Another 114 papers were removed in accordance with the previously mentioned exclusion criteria, or if no mental health-related outcome could be distinguished, if mobile phone use could not be identified as a separate variable, if focused only on specific smartphone applications (e.g., Tinder, Facebook, camera) or phone loss scenarios, or were not in English
The number of published papers greatly increased during the time-period, especially the last five years (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Mobile phones have over only a few decades revolutionized how we communicate, interact, search for information, work, do chores, and pass time. The development of the smartphone with its multitude of functions, increased memory capacity and speed, and constant connectedness to the internet, has increased the time spent using the phone, implying a near ubiquitous usage. This fast development with changed exposure patterns has raised questions about potential health effects of the exposure [1,2]. The mobile phone communicates through emission of radio signals, and the exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields has been proposed to be a health risk. In addition to physiological aspects of the exposure, there is a growing research literature that takes a psychological or behavioral perspective on potential health effects of mobile phone use. The purpose of this literature review was to supplement the work of the WHO expert group by carrying out a literature review of quantitative observational studies that consider links between mobile phone use and mental health from a psychological or

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion