Texting on Mobile Phones and Musculoskeletal Disorder in Young Adults
This study was in the journal Applied Ergonomics, January 2017; Vol. 58 pp. 208-214
I was driving past CU the other day, on Broadway, and I’m thankful I was being hyper-vigilant because a student (I assume it was a student, she was college aged and crossing the street in front of CU) was texting on her phone and started to step out in front of my car! Thankfully I was going slow enough and was paying attention, I hit my brakes and horn and she jumped backwards to the curb (Ok, I’ll admit it would have been satisfying to me if she’d also dropped her phone…).
We all see people of all ages on their phones these days. And they’re all bent over at the neck, with rounded shoulders.
As a Chiropractor, you could imagine that I see this and think to myself “Cha-Ching!”. Future business! And while it’s true, this postural phenomenon will create neck and upper back issues for those folks, I’m really not a mercenary! :)
Since we all know cell phones aren’t going away, perhaps some information about the use of them can help prevent future issues. A little knowledge goes a long way, right?!
While this study was directed at youth (aged 20-24) we can all extrapolate the results to ourselves.
Here’s the study:
The aim was to examine whether texing is a risk factor for MusculoSKeletal Disorders (from here on I’ll just write MSKD) in the neck and upper extremities in a population of young adults.
Key Points: (LOOK AT #’s 6 and 7!)
1. Access to mobile phones was 99% among those aged 15-24
2. In the US text messaging is the most frequently used type of communicative medium in this age group.
3. The physical exposure when texting consists of low physical load, repetitive thumb movements and neck flexion (bending forward)
4. Studies have identified MSKDs in the forearm and thumb, tendonitis, tenosynovitis and thumb-wrist joint arthritis, in relation to excessive texting.
5. It is know that neck flexion along with highly repetitive movements are considered risk factors for MSKDs.
6. In the subjects with symptoms, almost all had the neck flexed forward and did not support their arms while texting. This causes static (non-moving) stress in the neck and shoulders. Furthermore, they held the phone with one hand and used only one thumb.
7. In the subjects without pain it was more common to sit with a straight neck, to support the forearms and to hold the phone with both hands and type with both thumbs.
8. There were clear associations between the highest category of texting and pain in the neck and upper back
a.) 40% increased risk for women and 100% increased risk for men.
b.) In the study it showed that women have a higher texting velocity and therefore spend less time typing. Which may explain the decreased risk.
9. It is common to sit with the head flexed forward while texting. And the angle of head/neck flexion was higher/sharper compared to web browsing and video game playing.
10. The strongest associations with neck and upper back pain were in those subjects who texted more that 20 times a day.
a.) However there were associated neck and upper back pain in some subjects who texted only on average of 6 times a day.
11. A prospective study with a working population showed that flexing the neck greater than 20 degrees for more than 40% of the working day was a risk factor for sick leave due to neck pain.
So, what does all this mean?
If you and your family members text on a phone (ok, who DOESN’T do this in 2019?) then please try to learn better posture habits. This study didn’t speak at all to “screen time” issues. It speaks to postural issues.
I could take you down the rabbit hole of how neck flexion is detrimental to health and mortality. There are sooooo many studies that speak to this. But instead let’s just all be aware of this very new phenomenon in human biomechanics called Cell Phone Usage and it’s potential side effects.
Again, hold your phone up in front of your face. Rest your arms, or elbows, on something while you text. Use 2 hands. Make an effort to use better posture.