The Relationship between Smartphone Addiction and Functional Neck Disability among University Students during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of smartphones addiction, and to investigate the relationship between smartphones addiction and functional neck disability among the students of Taif University during a Covid-19 pandemic. 
 Methods: A 1060 students from Taif University participated in this study. The smartphones addiction was evaluated by using the short version of the smartphone’s addiction scale (SAS-SV) and functional neck disability was measured by the neck disability index (NDI). 
 Results: About 83 % of the students reported smartphones addiction, 50% were suffering from mild neck disability, and 84% used their smartphones for more than 4 hours/day. Female students represented one and half times more than male to develop a smartphones addiction (p< 0.05). There was a significant association between smartphones addition and neck disability (p< 0.05). Moreover, female students had a functional neck disability significantly greater than male students (p= 0.001). Students with smartphones addiction represented three times more than students without addiction to develop functional neck disability (p= 0.001), and female students represented two times more than male students to develop functional neck disability (p= 0.001). 
 Conclusion: During a COVID-19 pandemic, more than four-fifth of the students showed smartphones addiction. The female students are more predictive to smartphones addiction than male. The smartphones addiction and female students were found to be the predictors for functional neck disability.