The main objective of this study was to measure and examine changes in the neck flexion angle while using a Smartphone according to posture and duration of usage. Photographic analysis procedures were carried out to measure the neck flexion angle. The participants in this study were twenty young adults (half males); they stood against a scaled board and used the same Smartphone for web-browsing for twenty minutes. Photos were taken at zero, five, ten, fifteen and twenty minutes. This procedure was repeated for each participant at three postures (standing, sitting without arms rest, sitting with arms rested on a table). The results revealed statistically significant effects of both posture and duration of usage; neck flexion angle increased significantly over time in all postures and was significantly smaller in the standing posture than in the sitting postures. A significant effect of gender was also identified; males displayed larger neck flexion angles than females.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BeroloS.WellsR.AmickB. (2011). Musculoskeletal symptoms among mobile hand-held device users and their relationship to device use. Applied Ergonomics,42(2), 371–378.
2.
GustafssonE.JohnsonP.HagbergM. (2010). Thumb postures and physical loads during mobile phone use - a comparison of young adults with and without musculoskeletal symptoms. Journal of electromyography and kinesiology, 20(1), 127-135.
3.
GuanX.FanG.WuX.ZengY.SuH.GuG.ZhouQ.GuX.ZhangH.HeS. (2015). Photographic measurement of head and cervical posture when viewing mobile phone: a pilot study. European Spine Journal, 24(12), 2892–2898.
4.
GuanX.FanG.ChenZ.ZengY.ZhangH.HuA.GuG.WuX.GuX.HeS. (2016). Gender difference in mobile phone use and the impact of digital device exposure on neck posture. Ergonomics, 59(11), 1453-1461.
5.
ImageJ: Image Processing and Analysis in Java. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MA, USA. Website: https://imagej.nih.gov/ij/, accessed September 20, 2018.
6.
KalirathinamD.ManoharlalM.MeiC.LingC.ThomasS.AlbinJ.MahadevaR. (2017). Association between the usage of Smartphone as the risk factor for the prevalence of upper extremity and neck symptoms among university students: A cross-survey based study. Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology, 10(4), 1184-1190.
7.
KhatirR.TalebianS.MaroufiN.OlyaeiG. (2015). Effect of static neck flexion in cervical flexion-relaxation phenomenon in healthy males and females. Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, 20(2), 235-242.
8.
KimHKimJ. (2015). The relationship between Smartphone use and subjective musculoskeletal symptoms and university students. The journal of physical therapy science, 27(3),575-579.
9.
KimM. (2015). Influence of neck pain on cervical movement in the sagittal plane during Smartphone use. The journal of physical therapy science, 27(1), 15-17.
10.
KimY.KangM.KimJ.JangJ.OhJ. (2013). Influence of the duration of Smartphone usage on flexion angles of the cervical and lumbar spine and on reposition error in the cervical spine. The journal of Korean physical therapy,20(1), 10-17.
11.
LeeS.KangH.ShinG. (2014). Head flexion angle while using a Smartphone. Ergonomics, 58(2), 220-226.
12.
LeeS.LeeD.HanS. (2016). The effects of posture on neck flexion angle while using a Smartphone according to duration. Journal of the Korean society of physical medicine, 11(3), 35-39.
13.
ManiwaH.KotaniK.SuzukiS.AsaoT. (2013) Changes in Posture of the Upper Extremity Through the Use of Various Sizes of Tablets and Characters. In: YamamotoS. (eds) Human Interface and the Management of Information. Information and Interaction Design. HIMI 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8016. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
14.
ParkJ.KangS.JeonH. (2013). The effect of using smart-phones on neck and shoulder muscle activities and fatigue. The journal of Korean physical therapy, 20(3),19-26.
15.
RaineS.TwomeyL. (1994). Posture of the head, shoulders and thoracic spine in comfortable erect standing. Journal of physio-therapy, 40(10), 25-32.
16.
SelvaganapathyK.RajappanR.DeeT. (2017). The effect of Smartphone addiction on craniovertebral angle and depression status among university students. International journal of integrative medical sciences, 4(5), 537-542.
17.
ShaghayeghB.AhmadA.MaroufiN.SarrafzadehJ. (2016). Evaluation of forward head posture in sitting and standing positions. European Spine Journal, 25(11), 3577-3582.
18.
StrakerL.JonesK.MillerJ. (1997). A comparison of the postures assumed when using laptop computers and desktop computers. Applied Ergonomics, 28(4),263–268.
TongaE.ÖzgülB.TimurtasE. (2017). Evaluation of musculo-skeletal complaints associated with Smartphone use among university students and related risk factors. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases,76:1504.
21.
XieY.SzetoG.DaiJ. (2017). Prevalence and risk factors associated with musculoskeletal complaints among users of mobile handheld devices: a systematic review, Applied Ergonomics, 59(Part A), 132-142.
