Sukriti Raj¹, Rohit Rathore², Shubhi Kulshrestha³* and Shubham Sharma⁴

¹Lecturer, Physiotherapy Department, PDM University, Bahadurgarh, India
²Assistant Professor, Physiotherapy Department, PDM University, Bahadurgarh, India
³Senior Physiotherapist, AID PLUS Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Clinic, Delhi, India
⁴Assistant Professor, Santosh Medical College, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

*Corresponding Author: Shubhi Kulshrestha, Senior Physiotherapist, AID PLUS Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Clinic, Delhi, India.

Received: January 6, 2023; Published: February 09, 2023

Abstract

Background: Smartphone usage has increased tremendously among young adults over the past decade and its usage is not limited to phone calls and texting, it is widely used by students for reading eBooks, playing games, navigation etc. This has caused various musculoskeletal complaints among students relating to pain and postural defaults.

Method: University students with neck pain were taken for the study. Participants (n = 88) were assessed for smartphone addiction with smartphone addiction scale short version (SAS-SV), neck disability with neck disability index (NDI) and craniovertebral angle for assessing forward head posture which was done with ‘On Protractor’ application. Two groups were formed, smartphone non-addicted (n = 43) and smartphone addicted(n = 45). Score of NDI and CV angle were compared for both the groups and correlation was found out between smartphone addiction, NDI score and smartphone addiction and CV angle.

Result: A positive correlation (r = 0.42, p = 0.004) was found between smartphone addiction and NDI. No significant correlation (r = 0.08, p = 0.59) was found between craniovertebral angle and smartphone addiction. 14% participants were addicted to smartphone and 50% were having forward head posture (CVA<50^o). Using unpaired t-test comparison was made for NDI score in addicted (mean = 24.67, SD = 12.81) and non-addicted group (mean = 12.19, SD = 1.22) and a significant difference was found. For measuring the difference between the CVA in non-addcited and addcited groups unpaired t-test was applied. There was a significant difference in the angles of non-addcited (mean = 50.69, SD = 2.02) and addicted (mean = 48.97, SD = 2.18) groups.

Conclusion: This study shows that smartphone addicted people are more susceptible to have neck disability. The prevalence of smartphone addiction in university students is increasing, which is leading to various musculoskeletal problems and neck joint is affected in many of the students studying at university. Percentage of students with forward head posture has also increased.

Keywords: Neck Disability; Neck Pain; Forward Head Posture; Smartphone Addiction; Musculoskeletal Problems

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Citation: Shubhi Kulshrestha., et al. “Association of Neck Disability and Forward Head Posture in University Students with Smartphone Addiction". Acta Scientific Clinical Case Reports 4.3 (2023): 11-16.

Copyright: © 2022 Shubhi Kulshrestha., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.