Hypertension | Your high blood pressure could be because of talking on mobile phone

Researchers have found talking on a mobile phone for 30 minutes or longer per week to be linked with a 12 percent increased risk of developing high blood pressure or hypertension.

Almost three-quarters of the global population aged 10 and over own a mobile phone. Mobile phones emit low levels of radiofrequency energy, which has been linked with rises in blood pressure after short-term exposure, the study said.

Hypertension is a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke and a leading cause of premature death globally. "It’s the number of minutes people spend talking on a mobile that matter for heart health, with more minutes meaning greater risk,” said study author Xianhui Qin of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China. "Years of use or employing a hands-free set-up had no influence on the likelihood of developing high blood pressure. More studies are needed to confirm the findings,” said Qin.

The study is published in the European Heart Journal, Digital Health. Using data from the UK Biobank to examine the relationship between talking over phone calls and new-onset hypertension, a total of 212,046 adults aged 37 to 73 years without hypertension were engaged in this study. Information on the use of a mobile phone to make and receive calls was collected through a self-reported touchscreen questionnaire at baseline, including years of use, hours per week, and using a hands-free device/speakerphone. Over a median follow up of 12 years, 13,984 (7 percent) participants developed hypertension. Mobile phone users, who for the purposes of this study used a mobile phone at least once a week for making and taking phone calls, were found to have a 7 percent higher risk of hypertension compared with non-users.