Smartphone addiction and its relation to musculoskeletal pain in Egyptian physical therapy students

Abstract

Background: Smartphones are widely spread among the general population. This study was applied to determine the prevalence of Smartphone addiction and its relation to musculoskeletal pain among both male and female physical therapy students in Egypt.

Methods: A sample of 420 physical therapy students from 11 schools of physical therapy in Egypt participated in this survey. They filled in a Google form – with information about student’s demographic data, device usage, phone size and behaviour, current symptoms – and a short version of smart phone addiction scale. Numerical data were summarised using means, standard deviations, medians and ranges. Categorical data were summarised as percentages. Comparisons between males and females were made using the t-test and Chi-square tests.

Results: The Percentage of Smartphone addiction was 62.4% with increased level of addiction in females more than males. About 82.38% reported that they have feeling of discomfort in different body parts. There was a significant relation between some of the attempted positions during using Smartphones and site of discomfort and its type.

Conclusion: The prevalence of Smartphone addiction among physical therapy students was high, with more addiction apparent among females, and it was significantly related with discomfort in different body parts.

Keywords:

• Smartphone addiction
• musculoskeletal pain
• physical therapy

Disclosure statement

The authors reported that there is no financial or other relationships between them and any of the subjects of this study.