Back and neck pain and smartphone: is there a correlation?

Can being bent over the smartphone too often cause back- and neck pain in younger people? Data coming out of the study Posture and time spent using a smartphone are not correlated with neck pain and disability in young adults: A cross-sectional study, published some time ago by the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies are not confirming this.

The cross-sectional correlational study was conducted in a sample of students selected through convenience sampling between September 2016 and March 2017: the inclusion criteria were university students at the School of Medicine and Surgery, routine/daily use of mobile devices with advanced computing and connectivity capability built on an operating system, and aged 18–30 years. A total of 238 volunteers were recruited.

“The objective of the study – explains Prof. Stefano Negrini, scientific director of Isico and one of the authors of the research – was to determine the impact of smartphone use on neck impairment and functional limitation in university students. Neck pain was assessed using a visual analogue pain score (VAS) and a pain drawing (PD); disability status was measured using the Neck Disability Index (NDI-I); cervical postures while using the phone were captured using the Deluxe Cervical Range of Motion (CROM) device”.

While half of the young medical students reported neck pain, the use of smartphones was not correlated with neck pain and disability. “While we wait for future prospective studies – ends Prof. Negrini – there is no reason to recommend a change in smartphone use habits among young adults in the meantime”.