Effect Of Smartphone Addiction On Cervical Posture, Hand Grip Strength And Respiratory Function Among Secondary School Students Of Delhi: A Cross Sectional Study.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 pandemic had huge impact on students and working professionals. As the lockdown was imposed all school students were expected to take classes online via smartphone or computer. Many schools are still providing study material and assignments online, therefore school students are spending more hours on electronic gadgets. Many researchers suggest that magnitude of smart phones addiction among adolescence increased in recent years. Use of smartphone increases the pressure on the cervical spine, which eventually result in changes on cervical angle, performing small repetitive motions (such as texting) associated with using smartphones in a sustained non ideal posture during these motions. Smartphone usage results in faulty posture and reduction in basic physical fitness has been found to be associated with obesity, thoracic restriction due to muscle imbalances and leads to decrease pulmonary function.

AIM: To determine the effect of smartphone addiction on cervical posture, hand grip strength and respiratory function among secondary school students of Delhi.

MATERIAL AND METHOD: This cross sectional study included 246 students from senior secondary schools of Delhi, India, from July 2023 to December 2023. Smartphone addiction is assessed with the help of Smart phone addiction scale – Short Version (SAS-SV). Hand grip strength measurement was done by jamar grip dynamometer. Cervical posture assessment done by on protractor App (version 6.0) and Clarity Spiro Tech CMPS – 01 used for Respiratory functions. Data was further analysed using t-test to find out variation among study population.

RESULTS: The mean age of study population was 22±3.35 years and majority of study population fall under healthy group as per Body Mass Index Body Mass Index (BMI). There was no statistically significant change in the scapular position at rest (p-value=0.334), at 45° abduction (p-value=0.840) and at 90° abduction (p-value=0.595) of addicted subjects. There was no significance (p-value=0.083) change in Forced Expiratory Flow (FEF) 25-75%, also other parameters p-value do not show any statistical significance difference between the smartphone users less than 4 years, 4-6 years, >6-8 years, more than 8 years.

Conclusion: No significant changes observed in pulmonary function tests and altered scapula positioning among the smartphone addicted users.