Reid S.A.1
1ACU, North Sydney, Australia
Background: The use of mobile electronic devices (smartphones, tablets and laptops) has increased dramatically over the past few years. This has led to increased reports of related musculoskeletal symptoms such as neck pain, headaches and thumb pain as well as problems of poor concentration and fatigue. Studies report increased forces thru the neck as cervical spine flexion increases.
Purpose: To survey Physiotherapy students and academic staff at an Australian university about their mobile device usage and reported symptoms.
Methods: This was an observational study. In total, 100 Physiotherapy students and 200 academic staff at an Australian University, were randomly selected and invited to complete a survey about number of hours per day spent on mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops and musculoskeletal symptoms. Reports of neck pain and headache in the past year were the main outcomes.
Results: A total of 93 (93%) Physiotherapy students and 105 academic staff (53%) completed the survey. The reported mean age of students was 22 (SD 4) years with 59% female, while for staff 46 (SD = 12) years with 69% female. Students spent 4.1 (1.9) hours per day on mobile devices and 1.5 (2.0) hours on desktop computers, while staff spent 2.4 (2.1) hours per day on mobile devices and 4.8 (2.8) hours on desktop computers. Respondents were asked to report pain greater than 2/10 on a scale of 0-10 in the past year. A positive response was reported for headaches in students 66%, staff 51%; neck pain in students 53%, staff 44%; upper back pain in students 52%, staff 47%; and thumb pain in students 23%, staff 10%. Accidents such as walking into something or falling over while texting were reported by 40% of students and16% of staff. There were greater reports of fatigue (55%) and concentration difficulties believed to be from device usage (42%) and stress when not being reachable by phone (34%) in students compared to staff 23%, 12% and 17% respectively.
The odds of answering yes to a question were significantly lower in staff than students about having thumb pain with an odds ratio (OR) of 0.4 (95% CI 0.2 to 0.9), for having an accident while texting and walking OR 0.3 (95% CI 0.2 to 0.6), for having fatigue OR 0.3 (95% CI 0.2 to 0.5) and concentration difficulties related to device use OR 0.2 (95% CI 0.1 to 0.4).There were no significant differences between groups for the other outcomes.
Conclusion(s): Physiotherapy students are spending long periods of time on unsupported mobile devices. As a consequence many of them report having headaches, neck pain, thumb pain, accidents while texting and walking, fatigue and concentration difficulties possibly related to device use.
Implications: The high proportion of physiotherapy students with musculoskeletal symptoms like headaches, neck pain and thumb pain as well as fatigue and concentration difficulties could have implications on their working life as a physiotherapist.
Funding acknowledgements: Nil
Topic: Musculoskeletal: spine
Ethics approval: Australian Catholic University Human Research Ethics Committee No 2015-284E
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
