The Impact of Smartphone Use on Musculoskeletal System Pain and Mental Health

Abstract

Introduction and purpose: Long-term use of the smartphone may cause many physical discomforts such as visual impairment, numbness and tingling in the hands, neck, back, hip, knee pain. In addition, excessive use of smartphones is thought to be associated with conditions such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, low self-esteem, social maladjustment, and impulse control disorder. Because of these, we aimed to investigate the impact of smartphone usage time on musculoskeletal system and mental health. Methods: A total of 245 participants were included in this cross-sectional study. The Neck Disability Index was used to evaluate the musculoskeletal system problems and Beck Depression Scale was used to evaluate mental health of participants. Results: The mean age and BMI of the participants in the study were 22.47 ± 4.66 years and 22.37 ± 3.95 kg/m2. There was a statistically significant difference in the smartphone use time with neck pain and mental health scores (p<0.001 and p=0.034, respectively). It was determined that the significant difference in musculoskeletal pain was caused using smartphones for 2-4 hours, 4-8 hours and more than 8 hours. Conclusion: As the smartphone usage time increased, we saw that the negative impact of the musculoskeletal system increased. Similarly, we observed that there was a direct proportional increase between depression scores. We think that the increase in smartphone usage time has a negative effect on musculoskeletal system and mental health.