The effect of smartphone use on neck flexion angle and hand grip power among adolescents: Cross-sectional study

Background: The use of smart phones has become increasingly popular and almost indispensable in contemporary life, but many studies have addressed that excessive use negatively affects the various developmental domains. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of prolonged smartphone use on the forward neck translation, neck flexion angle and handgrip power for duration of 8 weeks. Materials and Methods: Ninety students from nine different international schools in Sharjah, UAE, with age ranging between 13-17 years. Participated in this study. Subjects were divided into two groups based on their daily frequency of smartphone use. Group (I) using smart phones less than 4 hours/day and Group (II) using more than 4 hours/day. The Neck flexion angle and forward neck translation were measured by the posture assessment mobile application (PostureCo, Inc), during their normal straight upright postural standing position. Handgrip power was measured with a Handheld Dynamometer (HHD) for both dominant and non-dominant hands, with arms abducted 30 degrees and wrist slightly extended (10 degrees). Measures were repeated 3 times and the average was considered for data analysis. Results: After 8 weeks of smart phone usage, statistical analyses revealed significant increase and decrease in the forward neck translation and neck flexion angles respectively. On the other hand, there were no statistically significant differences in handgrip power in both groups. Conclusion: Our results revealed the significant effect of the prolonged use of smartphones on the neck flexion angle, forward head translation without affecting handgrip power.