Bacterial Contamination of Cellular Phones: Are Mobile Phones Safer than Smart Phones?

Objective: We aimed to describe pathogenic contamination on healthcare workers’ cellular phones, detect factors associated with contamination, and demonstrate whether there was a link between cell phone contamination and subsequent healthcare-associated infections. Methods: The study was conducted in a 2000-bed tertiary care university hospital in Ankara. A total of 631 healthcare workers (HCWs) from several departments willing to participate were included in the study. Bacterial cultures were taken from each cell phone via rotating a sterile swab moistened with sterile physiological saline solution over both sides of the phone surface and cover. Samples were taken to the bacteriology laboratory within one hour and streaked onto 5% sheep blood agar. Isolated microorganisms were identified with conventional methods. Results: All 631 cell phones investigated had positive cultures; forty-four (6.05%) were pathogenic microorganisms. Drug resistance was not detected among pathogenic bacteria. As determined by univariate analysis, using flip phone cover (P = 0.022), a professional experience of fewer than five years (P = 0.049), having cleaned the phone within the last 48 hours (P = 0.030), and working in a medical ward (P = 0.022) were significantly associated with pathogen contamination on the devices. Multivariate analysis with logistic regression revealed that using flip cover is the only factor associated with pathogen contamination on cell phones (P=0.035). Pathogen contamination on smartphones (7.7%) seemed to be higher than on mobile phones (5.2%) (P=0.263). Conclusion: Pathogen contamination on smartphones was higher than on mobile phones but did not reach statistical significance. Using flip cover covers on cellular phones increases contamination rates. We could not show any HAI occurred by the bacteria isolated from cell phones, but health care workers should pay attention to this issue.