ArticleBMC research notes2016
Cellular telephone use during free-living walking significantly reduces average walking speed.
Article in BMC research notes, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Impact of Lower-Limb Muscle Fatigue on Dynamic Postural Control During Stair Descent: A Study Using Stair-Embedded Force Plates.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Examining associations between smartphone use, smartphone addiction, and mental health outcomes: A cross-sectional study of college students.Health promotion perspectives · 2021Article
- Article
- Associations of Objectively-Assessed Smartphone Use with Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, Mood, and Sleep Quality in Young Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Analysis of the effect of overusing thumbs on smartphone games.The Journal of international medical research · 2019Article
- Article
- Validity of the Smombie Scale: Sensitivity and specificity in identifying pedestrian risk group.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCellular telephone (cell phone) use decreases walking speed in controlled laboratory experiments and there is an inverse relationship between free-living walking speed and heart failure risk. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of cell phone use on walking speed in a free-living environment.
methodsSubjects (n = 1142) were randomly observed walking on a 50 m University campus walkway. The time it took each subject to walk 50 m was recorded and subjects were coded into categories: cell phone held to the ear (talking, n = 95), holding and looking at the cell phone (texting, n = 118), not visibly using the cell phone (no use, n = 929).
resultsSubjects took significantly (p < 0.001) longer traversing the walkway when talking (39.3 s) and texting (37.9 s) versus no use (35.3 s).
conclusionAs was the case with the previous laboratory experiments, cell phone use significantly reduces average speed during free-living walking.
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Registered trials
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