Cutting-edge technology and nocturnal headaches in adolescent smart phone users in Chiang Mai, Thailand: A time series study

Purpose - Nocturnal headaches among adolescents were reported to be increased with the development of modern technology. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the smartphone electromagnetic radiation related to nocturnal headaches among high school students. Design/methodology/approach - The time series study of all 12,969 records from 145 high school students Chiang Mai Province was selected from the population in the first phase by setting criteria. The samples completed a headache diary utilizing a smartphone application. The smartphone output power (SOP) was measured and recorded by the smartphone application and transmitted by e-mail to a researcher. The smartphone use, sleep quality, anxiety and depression also were assessed. Data were analyzed using Generalized Estimating Equation adjusting for demographic data, smartphone use, and sleep quality and otherwise. Findings - The resulted showed the prevalence of repeated headaches to be 13.4 percent, nocturnal headache only 5.3 percent and the strongest effect of day time SOP at a 1.80–1.99×10−5 mW range on nocturnal headaches (ORadj5.18; 95% CI: 3.44–7.81). Meanwhile, Lag_6 of daily SOP exposure produced a nocturnal headache effect in a reverse dose-response manner. Furthermore, the nocturnal headache also had the strongest association with age, internet use and device brand (ORadj2.33; 95% CI: 1.08–5.05, ORadj2.14; 95% CI: 1.07–4.2 and ORadj1.68; 95% CI: 1.1–2.4). Originality/value - The electromagnetic radiation from a smartphone is the environmental variables influences on headache. The results suggested that there should be limited times for smartphone use and older age to start using a smartphone to prevent headache attacks at night.