Volume 27, Issue 135, May 2023

The relationship between smartphone addiction/overuse and musculoskeletal pain in Saudi Arabia

Abdulmalik B Albaker^1♦, Saud M Alzahrani², Farah Alnasser³, Abdullah F Al Mula⁴, Muath Alghamdi⁵, Aljohrah Mohammed Al-Hunaif⁶, Ali Hassan Siddiq Alkhaldi², Nouf Ali Abdullah Asiri⁶, Ibrahim Adel Hassan Al-Hajji⁴, Razan Ali S Alshehri⁶

¹Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedics, College of Medicine, Majmaah University, Majmaah 11952, Saudi Arabia
²Medical Intern, College of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Al-Qundufah, Saudi Arabia
³Medical Intern, College of Medicine, Majmaah University, Majmaah 11952, Saudi Arabia
⁴Medical Intern, College of Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia
⁵Medical Intern, College of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
⁶Medical Student, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedics, College of Medicine, Majmaah University, Majmaah 11952, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background: Although the smartphone with the latest advancement of technology has made many aspects of human existence more convenient and quick, providing us several advantages, the usage of the smartphone has several negative impacts on physical or mental health that might generally be resulted in behavioral alterations and posture or musculoskeletal changes. As a result, the purpose of this study was to examine whether or not prolonged exposure to smartphones increases the risk of developing musculoskeletal discomfort. Methods: A questionnaire (containing sociodemographic data, musculoskeletal pain and their relationship with smartphone usage) using social media distributed pre-designed Google form was employed for performing this cross-sectional study. SPSS v.22.0 was utilized for statistical analysis. Data were considered statistically significant at P < 0.05. Results: Study revealed that addiction or smartphone dependency presented a significantly association of smartphone usage with musculoskeletal pain (45% - neck pain; 33% - shoulder and hand pain). Conclusion: The above results suggested that neck pain is the most prevalent smartphone-associated musculoskeletal pain that could be prevented by good posture maintenance.

Keywords: Smartphone, Addiction, Overuse, Musculoskeletal Pain, Relationship, Saudi Arabia

Medical Science, 2023, 27, e238ms3009

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v27i135/e238ms3009

Published: 27 May 2023