INTRODUCTION: In today’s digital age, smartphone technology and applications uses are becoming popular among university students. In recent research on Smartphone usage, university students outperformed all other age groups. Consequently, there is evidence of a large and noteworthy percentage of musculoskeletal disease especially in the neck among the college students. AIM: The study aims to explore the impact of prolonged smartphone usage on neck pain among university students of IGTAMSU. OBJECTIVES: To assess the relationship between prolonged usage of smartphone and neck pain, to determine the number of students affected with neck pain due to prolonged smartphone use and, to assess the severity of neck pain due to smartphone use. METHOD: This cross- sectional correlation study was conducted on 209 students from Indira Gandhi Technological and Medical Sciences University, Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh, using probability simple random sampling. Participants age 18-26 years with daily smartphone usage ≥3 hour or more per day. Data collection tools included a self –structured demographic form, the Smartphone Addiction Scale – short Version (SAS-SV) and Neck Disability Index (NDI). Ethical approval and informed consent were obtained prior to data collection. RESULT: Out of 209 participants,163 (77.99%) were females and 46 (22.01%) were male, with mean age 20.8±1.89 years. About 86.6% (n=103) of students with smartphone addiction were found to have neck pain, whereas only 68.9% (n=62) of those without smartphone addiction experienced neck pain. A Chi-square test of independence was conducted to examine the association between smartphone addiction status and neck pain among students. All expected smartphone frequencies were greater than 5. The results indicated a statistically significant association between smartphone addiction and neck pain, p=0.002. CONCLUSION: A significant association between smartphone addiction and neck pain among university students of IGTAMSU.
Welly et al. (Fri,) studied this question.