Is mobile phone a source of hand discomfort for university students?

Abstract

Background: Mobile phones users are increasing with the technology advancement and it became one of the important assets of youngster’s life. Every device is having its positive as well as negative effects. Due to more usage of these mobile phones, people are complaining of some musculoskeletal and neurological discomforts. Purpose: The objective of the study was to determine the frequency and intensity of hand discomforts in university students, who were using smart phones and to identify which area of hand is more affected. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among young adults with sample size of 470, recruited through non-probability convenient sampling. It was done within the duration of 06 months (August to January 2017) from the medical universities of Islamabad. A standardized questionnaire (Cornell Mobile Phone Hand Discomfort Questionnaire), with a Kappa coefficient between 0.56-0.97 was used. Some self-structured questions were added in it. It was distributed among young adults (18-26 years) who were doing atleast 30sms/Whatsapp/email per day or browsing internet or playing games for more than 2 hours. While those students using desktop computer or laptop (typing) for more than 1hour, having any upper limb musculoskeletal deformity or neurological disorders were not included in the study. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: In the sample of 470, 369 (78.5%) was of females and 101 (21.5 %) of males with a mean age of 20.90 ± 1.94 years. The result reported that 68.4% participants were not having any type of hand discomfort after using smart phone. Mild hand discomfort was found in 28.36% participants, moderate in 2.56% while a very negligible percentage reported severe hand discomfort. This study further revealed that there is a significant association of frequency and duration of usage of mobile phone with hand discomfort. Conclusion: It is concluded that mobile phone was not a source of hand discomfort for majority of the young adults. A moderate percentage of participants reported mild hand discomfort. However, the frequency and duration of mobile phone usage has a strong association with hand discomfort.