Comparison of musculoskeletal pain and upper extremity disability in smartphone addicts and smartphone non-addicts among university students: A cross-sectional study

Objective

The aim of this study was to compare musculoskeletal pain and upper extremity disability between 'smartphone addicts' and 'non-smartphone addicts' and to assess the impact of determinants of musculoskeletal pain and upper extremity disability in both groups.

Methods

The study included 352 university students aged 18–25 years who used smartphones for at least 1 h per day in the past year. The questionnaire consisted of demographic data, the Smartphone Addiction Scale-short version (SAS-SV), the Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand questionnaire (QuickDASH), and the Verbal Rating Scale. Participants were divided into two groups, 'smartphone addicts' and 'smartphone non-addicts', according to their SAS-SV scores (cut-off for males≥31, females≥33).

Results

Participants had a prevalence of smartphone addiction of 38.4%. There was a statistically significant difference between the 'addicted' and 'non-addicted' groups for SAS-SV (p < 0.001), Quick DASH (p < 0.001) and daily smartphone use time (p = 0.007). The results of logistic regression analyses showed that female gender was a predictor of shoulder (OR = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.16–0.85, p = 0.01) and wrist/hand (OR = 0.43, 95% CI = 0.19–0.98; p = 0.04) pain in smartphone addicts and low back pain (OR = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.12–0.98, p = 0.04) in non-smartphone addicts. In both groups, the SAS-SV score was found to significantly predict the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in all body regions.

Conclusions

The study showed that among university students, smartphone addicts had more musculoskeletal complaints and upper extremity disability than smartphone non-addicts. The SAS-SV score was a predictor of the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain and upper extremity disability in smartphone users among university students.