Bent necks and twisted wrists: Exploring the impact of touch-screen tablets on the posture of office workers

Abstract

Touch-screen tablets are becoming increasingly popular as office work tools. However, as current health and safety regulations applied to office equipment do not cover tablets, the importance of understanding their impact on the posture of office workers increases. As the research on ergonomic issues related to tablet use is scarce, especially in the context of office work, we explore, through an online questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and observations with postural analysis, how and where office workers use tablets and what potential posture-related issues could arise as a result. Our findings show that the lack of screen adjustability and the virtual keyboard encourage poor posture and tablet use could lead to discomfort in a number of body areas, especially the neck and wrists.

A scoping review on smart mobile devices and physical strain

“…Similarly all tablet users observed by Stawarz und Benedyk [14] showed a combination of flexed necks and trunks while working in the office, leading to raised RULA scores, as assessed by the researchers. The authors emphasized additional detrimental effects on postures due to tilted tablets in order to avoid glare and reflection on the glossy touchscreen surface.…”

“…36 studies were finally included in the subsequent quantitative syntheses. Two studies only addressed the use of smart devices in a specific work context [13,14]. Most studies focused on biomechanical parameters.…”

“…While trying to prevent glare and reflections, users sometimes adopted a range of unbeneficial positions [14]. Thus, special displays with high luminance contrast or as modification to existing installed displays, reflection repressive foils may not only prevent glare and reflections but avoid self-imposed bad postures.…”

“…Young et al [25] discovered shoulder elevation of about 6 • , especially if a tablet was deposited on a table while texting. Participants in the Stawarz and Benedyk field study [14] also used their tablets with elevated shoulders, at the same time keeping the elbows in the air, and ignoring available armrests. The latter was equally noted in the study by Bachynskyi et al [26].…”

“…Unfortunately the amount of deviation of the wrist (flexion/extension, radial/ulnar deviation) was not reported separately. Postural analysis for tablet use by Stawarz and Benedyk [14] revealed wrists being extended and (due to the narrow virtual keyboard) deviated sideways. Also, participants kept their fingers floating above the touch-screen, even when not typing, keeping the wrists permanently extended.…”