Prevalence of text neck syndrome and SMS thumb among smartphone users in college-going students: a cross-sectional survey study

Ahmed, Sohel; Akter, Rahemun; Pokhrel, Nikita; Samuel, Asir John

doi:10.1007/s10389-019-01139-4

Cited by 50 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…[10] According to a recent study conducted in India, 42.5% of participants had neck disabilities. [14] Another recent study conducted in India with similar social groups as in our study (82% of females and 17% of males) concluded that the prevalence of text neck syndrome was 32% of a total of 100 physiotherapy students. [21] There is also a study conducted in Korea among 2353 university students reported that 34.0% had a neck disability.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

“…[2] Two studies conducted in Pakistan and India reported that the prevalence of text neck syndrome was 43.6% and 42.5%, respectively. [13,14] Another two studies conducted in Saudi Arabia at Aljouf University and Qassim University among mobile phone users showed that 71.2% and 59.5% complained of cervical pain, respectively. [10,15] Several studies reported a significant relationship between neck pain and smartphone addiction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The prevalence of text neck syndrome and its association with smartphone use among medical students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Alsiwed

Alsarwani

Alshaikh

et al. 2021

JMSR

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Objectives: Text neck syndrome was first described by Fishman D. It refers to neck pain caused by repetitive stress injury resulting from prolonged neck flexion among smartphone users. The association of neck disability with various behaviors during the use of smartphones is still unclear in the literature. Therefore, we aimed to estimate the frequency of such factors and evaluate whether they contribute to text neck. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at six medical colleges in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from July 2020 to January 2021. An electronic, self-administered questionnaire was distributed to medical students online. In addition, participants were asked to complete the smartphone addiction scale-short version (SAS-SV) and the neck disability index (NDI). Results: A total of 428 medical students participated, of which 304 (71.02%) were female, while 124 (28.97%) were male. The mean age was 22.11 ± 2.07 years. The prevalence of text neck syndrome was 68.1%. Among the participants, 49.5% had mild, 16.1% had moderate, and 2.6% had severe neck disabilities. The Spearman correlation coefficient showed a moderate positive correlation between SAS-SV and the NDI (rs = 0.328, P < 0.001). Conclusion: The current study found that most medical students had a neck disability, and there was a significant association between text neck syndrome and smartphone use. In addition, a lack of appropriate neck positioning and prolonged use of smartphones were found in most students. Therefore, more emphasis should be placed on raising awareness of the necessity of maintaining appropriate sitting posture and limiting the duration of mobile phone use.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The prevalence of text neck syndrome and its association with smartphone use among medical students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Alsiwed

Alsarwani

Alshaikh

et al. 2021

JMSR

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“…This collection of symptoms is referred to as 'text neck syndrome' which is seen predominantly in people who use mobile phones excessively [19]. Our results are in accordance with another research done on college students in which 42% of people had neck pain and 35% had mild neck disability index scores due to mobile phone overuse [20]. Another study conducted among undergraduate students of Punjab University and University of Lahore showed that 56.7% of the total participants who were heavy mobile phone users had neck pain [21].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

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2021

MCR

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Background: Since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic and a worldwide lockdown was imposed, it was predicted that there would be an increase in screen usage, especially among students, which could potentially have a lot of negative symptomology associated with it. Objective:The objective of our study was to determine the extent of screen exposure among medical students during lockdown and to study the symptoms that they faced due to it along with their frequency.Methods: In our descriptive cross-sectional study, we distributed the specifically designed questionnaire through online media to the concerned population, in order to gather important data about the physical and mental symptoms experienced by the medical students as a result of excessive screen exposure. Results: Of the 400 participants, 93.75 % reported an increase in screen time during the lockdown. As a consequence of increased screen usage, 207 (51.75%) of the participants reported headache, 267 (66.75%) reported fatigue, 283 (70.75%) reported eye strain, 121 (30.25%) reported dry eyes, 143 (35.75%) reported blurry vision, 154 (38.5%) reported teary eyes, 154 (38.5%) reported ear ache, 247 (61.75%) reported neck and back stiffness and 148 ( 37%) participants agreed to having experienced fingers and hand fatigue. We also established that increasing screen time was associated with a progressive decrease in physical activity (p=0.11) and increase in food consumption (p=0.002). A significant association was also recorded with weight gain (p=0.03). We found that the students previously diagnosed with a refractive error were more likely to complain of eye strain (p=0.004) and those diagnosed with migraine experienced more screen related headache (p=0.001). Of the 11 symptoms related to mental health in the questionnaire, students with screen usage of less than 4 hours marked a median of 2 symptoms, those with screen time of 4-8 hours marked a median of 4 symptoms and those with a screen usage >8 hours ticked a median of 5 symptoms. Students who had been diagnosed with anxiety or depression in the past checked an average of 5.24 symptoms while those with no such diagnosis had only 3.51 symptoms on average. Conclusion:The results proved a potential impact on the general health of the medical students. A significant increase in weight was observed along with other serious short and long term effects on their physical and mental wellbeing.

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“…Neck pain was associated with spending more time on mobile phone reported by S. Ahmed et al. [ 32 ]. Statistical significant relationship was observed between leisure activity and low back pain outcome [ 33 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of lockdown on musculoskeletal health due to COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh: A cross sectional survey study

Ahmed¹,

Akter²,

Islam³

et al. 2021

Heliyon

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Background During the nationwide lockdown implemented by the government of Bangladesh due to the coronavirus, has led to the various changes in the overall activities and lifestyle. Most of the people began living a sedentary lifestyle, spending more time on their phone, watching television and excessive sleeping. Reduction of physical activity level had profoundly negative impact on musculoskeletal health. Aim This study aims to investigate the impact of lockdown on musculoskeletal health, association between leisure and musculoskeletal pain during this period. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted among general populations living in a specific area of Bangladesh by simple random sampling methods. A total of 230 participants both male (182) and female (48) age group between 18-60 years have participated. The study was carried out by sending the Google Form link containing demographic questionnaire, numeric pain rating scale and Nordic musculoskeletal Questionnaire. Wilcoxon sign rank t and Chi squire test was used to analyze the data. Results The mean height, weight and BMI of the participants were 164.17 ± 8.40 cm, 63.82 ± 10.70 kg and 23.74 ± 3.97 kg/m 2 respectively. There was significant increase in time spent in watching television (p= < 0.0001), using smartphone (p= < 0.0001) and sleeping (p= < 0.0001) during the lockdown period. 33.9% participants had pain before the lockdown which increased by 57% during the lockdown periods. There was a significant association between pain intensity and sleeping time (X 2 = 54.84; p= < 0.0001), time spent watching television (X 2 = 83.70; <0.0001), time spent on smartphone (X 2 = 58.39; <0.0001) during the lockdown period. Conclusion The result of this study concluded that the lockdown has negatively impacted the musculoskeletal health of the participants. The musculoskeletal pain might be short term initially, but can develop to be a long-term problem and burden if proper measures are not taken.

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Prevalence of text neck syndrome and SMS thumb among smartphone users in college-going students: a cross-sectional survey study

Cited by 50 publications

References 19 publications

The prevalence of text neck syndrome and its association with smartphone use among medical students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

The prevalence of text neck syndrome and its association with smartphone use among medical students in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

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Impact of lockdown on musculoskeletal health due to COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh: A cross sectional survey study

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