The impact of using multimedia technologies on the cervical spine among young adults – preliminary studies

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: The Internet and access to electronic devices seem to be the necessities of the modern daily life. The aim of this study was to assess the amount of time spent daily in front of a mobile phone and computer/laptop, the body posture while using these devices, and the occurrence of pain during usage. Materials and methods: The study group consisted of first-year students of engineering and IT at 2 universities in Kielce. The research was carried out using the self-constructed questionnaire technique. The questionnaire was divided into 3 parts: I. personal data; II. mobile phone use; III. desktop computer/ laptop use. The survey concerned mainly the amount of time spent in front of electronic devices, posture, as well as the scale of pain while using the above-mentioned devices. Results: The study involved 135 people (96 men – 71% and 39 women – 29%) aged 19–30 years (±21 years). The use of electronic devices up to about 3 h a day was the most frequent response – 56% of all responses for a mobile phone uses and 62% for a computer/laptop use. The percentage of people who devoted more than 5 h a day to mobile phones as well as using computers over 6 h a day was 4%. The analysis showed that when using the electronic devices, pain was reported for almost every area of the body. Body position while standing and sitting was described in various variants of answers indicated by respondents when using electronic devices. Conclusions: The implementation of correct health-related habits regarding the adoption of the correct body position from an early age results in avoiding pain in the future. Spending too much time on the computer or mobile phone contributes to the occurrence of pain in the study group.