2023, Vol. 10, Issue 5, Part B

Background: A smart-phone is a mobile hand-held device with advanced computing capabilities, such as internet connection, information retrieval, entertainment, e-commerce and other capabilities. 94% of people aged from 18-24 years have smart-phones and 91% of them are college students using the smart-phone on regular basis and spending 5.7 -6 hours of time on an average day. The concept of addiction, though traditionally used to describe a physical dependence on a substance has been applied to excessive use of the internet. The continuous use of smart-phone for long time can cause various musculoskeletal problems, mainly neck disabilities and pain. As the continuous use of phone in a faulty posture especially forward head posture or static neck flexion will commonly cause neck pain and soreness.

Objective of the study: To determine the level of smart-phone addiction and its relationship with neck function and disability in college going students.

Methodology: A study with total 25 college going students in and around Mangalore aged from 18 to 25 years had participated. The initial assessment of students to include them according to inclusion and exclusion criteria was done. And they were asked to fill the neck pain disability index (NDI) and internet addiction scale (IAT) after they agreed to participate in the study with filled informed consent. And obtained results were analyzed in SPSS 1.6 for the correlation.

Results: Pearson correlation was used to find the association between the outcome measures. And the correlation between the neck pain and internet addiction (r= 0.386, p=0.057) shows a moderate positive correlation and is significant.

Conclusion: The findings of this research supports that the addiction of the internet on smart-phone use causes a various degree of neck problems among the college going students.