Cervical Pain and its Intensity due to the use of Hand-Held Electronic Devices among University Students

Abstract

Background: Cervical Pain is the pain in the cervical region. It is the 4^th leading cause of disability and it affects the young adults due to the poor posture. It is more common in females. Today. The hand-held devices such as cellphone is a necessity for communication, academic and official activities and for leisure time. The more usage of these devices in poor posture is leading to pain which if remain untreated can be a cause of long term impairment or disability.

Aim: To find the cervical pain due to the use of hand-held electronic devices among university students.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on 700 university students. This sample size was calculated by variables: precision 0.05, estimated proportion 0.41 and with confidence level 0.99. A self-administered Questionnaire in English was given to the students fulfilling the eligibility criteria.

Results: Among 700 students, 679(97%) use smartphones while 21(0.3%) don’t use smartphones. The percentage of daily usage of smartphones among students was 12.6% for 1-2 hours, 28% for 2-3 hours and 59.4% more than 3 hours daily. The neck pain was reported in 500 (71.4%) participants whereas 200 (28.6%) had no neck pain. The participants rated pain on VAS Scale as 200 (28.6%) answered no pain, 434 (62%) answered Moderate Pain and 66 (9.4%) answered Worst Pain.

Conclusion The results of this study concluded that there was strong association of cervical pain with daily usage of smartphone.