CORRELATION OF SMARTPHONE ADDICTION WITH TEXT NECK SYNDROME DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Background: Smartphones pervasiveness has captured people with the ability to search for information, communicate more easily, and make our day-to-day jobs easier. On the other hand, excessive smartphone use can also lead to serious musculoskeletal consequences including neck pain and disability. Objective: To determine the correlation of Text-Neck-Syndrome with smartphone addiction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted on n=500 participants of both genders between 20 to 30 years olds. The study population were assessed for text next syndrome with Neck disability index, and neck pain on Visual analogue scale (VAS) and Smartphone addiction scale short version (SAS-SV) to find problematic smartphone usage. The spearmen test was used to determine the correlation between the Text neck syndrome and smartphone addiction during Covid-19 pandemic. Results: The mean age of the participants was 22.8±2.47 years. A total of n=418(83.6%) were female and remaining n=82(16.4%) was male participated in the study. The results showed that there is significant mild to moderate positive significant correlation (p<0.05) between individual item and total score of SAS-SV with pain and neck disability. Conclusion: It was concluded that the excessive use of smart phone during COVID 19 caused neck pain and related functional impairment. Keywords: Addiction, neck disability, neck pain, text neck syndrome, VAS