Correlation of smartphone use addiction with text neck syndrome and SMS thumb in physiotherapy students

Authors

  • Priyal P. Shah SBB College of Physiotherapy, VS Hospital Campus, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
  • Megha S. Sheth SBB College of Physiotherapy, VS Hospital Campus, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20182187

Keywords:

Smartphone addiction, Text neck, SMS thumb, Musculoskeletal disorders

Abstract

Background:Young adults have grown up today with mobile phones as an evident part of their lives. Text neck syndrome and SMS thumb may occur due to repetitive use of hand held devices (HHDs) resulting in repetitive stress injury or an overuse syndrome while using their mobile phones or other electronic devices for prolonged periods of time. Our aim is to assess self reported addiction to smartphone use and correlate its use and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in neck and hand in young healthy adults.

Methods:The study examined 100 healthy physiotherapy students of a college in Ahmedabad by random table sampling, in the age group of 20-25 years. Students were asked to fill a proforma with the questionnaires of Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS), Neck Disability Index (NDI), and Cornell Hand Discomfort Questionnaire (CHDQ) attached. Level of significance was kept at 5%. Spearman correlation coefficient was used to correlate between the SAS and NDI, and SAS and CHDQ respectively.

Results:There was a predominance of females over males (females-76, males-24). Mean±SD of SAS, NDI and CHDQ was 102.49±22.15, 30±0.10 and 6.12±8.73 respectively. Spearman correlation coefficient showed a significant moderate positive correlation between both SAS and NDI (r=0.671, p<0.001) and between SAS and CHDQ (r=0.465, p<0.001).

Conclusions: The study showed that musculoskeletal problems in neck and hand(predominantly thumb) can be seen in smartphone addicted students which may be short term initially but may later lead to long term disability.

References

Gustaffson E, Thomee S, Grimby-Ekman A, Hagberg M. Texting on mobile phones and musculoskeletal disorders in young adults: a five year cohort study. Appl Ergon. 2017;58:208-14.

Neupane S, Ali U, Mathew A. Text Neck Syndrome - Systematic Review. Imperial J Interdiscipl Res. 2017;3(7):141-8.

AlAbdulwahab SS, Kachanathu SJ, AlMotairi MS. Smartphone use addiction can cause neck disability. Musculoskeletal Care. 2017;15(1):10-2.

Lau KT, Cheung KY, Chan KB, Chan MH, Lo KY, Chiu TTW. Relationships between sagittal postures of thoracic and cervical spine presence of neck pain, neck pain severity and disability. Manual Therapy. 2010;15(5):457–62.

Chany AM, William S, Marras D, Burr L. The effect of Phone Design on Upper Extremity Discomfort and Muscle Fatigue. Hum Factors. 2007;4:602-18

Sengupta A, Grabiner S, Kothari P, Martinez G. Ergonomic aspects of personal digital assistant (PDA) and laptop use. Book of abstracts, PREMUS 2007 conference, Sixth International Scientific Conference on Prevention of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders, Boston, USA; 2007: 17.

Sharan D, Mohondass M, Rangnathan R, Jose J. Muskuloskeletal Disorders of Upper extremities due to extensive usage of hand held devices. Ann Occup Environ Med. 2014;26:22.

Kwon M, Lee J-Y, Won W-Y, Park J-W, Min J-A, Hahn C. Development and validation of a Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS). PLoS One. 2013;8(2):e56936.

Ching SM, Yee A, Ramachandran V, Sazlly Lim SM, Wan Sulaiman WA, et al. Validation of a Malay version of the Smartphone Addiction Scale among medical students in Malaysia. PloS One. 2015;10(10):e0139337.

Vernon H, Mior S. The Neck Disability Index: A study of reliability and validity. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 1991;14(7):409-15.

Erdinc O, Hot K, Ozkaya M. Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validity and Reliability of Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaires (CMDQ) In Turkish Language. Ergonomics. 2008;42(10):1333-49.

Lim C, Goh J (Eds.). Thumb motion and typing forces during text messaging on a mobile phone. ICBME, Proceedings 23; 2008: 2095–2098.

Ming Z, Pietikainen S, Hanninen O. Excessive texting in pathophysiology of first carpometacarpal joint arthritis. Pathophysiol. 2006;13:269-70.

Eapen C, Bhat AK. Prevalence of cumulative trauma disorders in cell phone users. J Musculoskelet Res. 2010;13:137-45.

Koh TH. Ulcerative “nintendinitis”: A new kind of repetitive strain injury. Med J Aust 2000; 173:671

Sharan D, Ajeesh P. Risk factors and clinical features of text messaging injuries. Work. 2012;41:1145-8.

Hakala PT, Rimpela AH, Saarni LA, Salminen JJ. Frequent computer-related activities increase the risk of neck-shoulder and low back pain in adolescents. Eur J Public Health. 2006;16(5):536-41.

Lee M, Hong Y, Lee S, Won J, Yang J, Park S. The effects of smartphone use on upper extremity muscle activity and pain threshold. J Phys Ther Sci. 2015;27(6):1743–5.

Selvaganapathy K, Rajappan R, Dee TH. The effect of smartphone addiction on craniovertebral angle and depression status among university students. Int J Intg Med Sci. 2017;4(5):537.

Downloads

Published

2018-05-22

How to Cite

Shah, P. P., & Sheth, M. S. (2018). Correlation of smartphone use addiction with text neck syndrome and SMS thumb in physiotherapy students. International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 5(6), 2512–2516. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20182187

Issue

Section

Original Research Articles