The prevalence of musculoskeletal dysfunction in the upper quadrant and its relationship with mobile phone usage in a student population at a University of Technology
Authors:   , Durell Jacques 
Published: February 2022

The aim of this study was to investigate mobile phone factors relating to demographics, anthropometry, usage and technique associated with those who were or were not experiencing upper quadrant musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction in a student populace. Subjects: A total of 384 participants selected from 21 909 registered students at the DUT spread over the six faculties, in order to reflect the accuracy of the total population and give a statistically significant result. The faculties included Accounting and Informatics, Applied Sciences, Arts and Design, Engineering and the Built Environment, Health Sciences and Management Sciences. This 378 was calculated by a biostatistician using a 95% confidence interval and 5% margin of error, from the total DUT population of 21 909 (Matthews 2017) (Appendix C). The total response rate was 384 which was six more than what was required as more questionnaires were distributed in order to account for short fall. All questionnaires were completed and analysed giving a response rate of 100%. Methodology: The measurement tool was a three-tiered questionnaire. The first section was demographics and anthropometric related questions, the second section was related to pain and dysfunction and the third section around the parameters of mobile phone usage and technique. After full approval and permission was granted by the Institutional Research Ethics Committee and the Durban University of Technology research office, students were either approached directly by the researcher or during a selected lecture period. Lecturers were contacted by the researcher directly to obtain permission. In requesting permission, it was pre-arranged that the first or last twenty minutes would be available on a certain lecture date, so as not to disrupt academic time if the lecturer concerned was agreeable to this. Two separate ballot boxes would be used to collect the informed consent forms and the questionnaires respectively in order to maintain confidentiality and anonymity. The participant’s name was not used on the data sheets. A code was allocated to each questionnaire. Results: In total, 384 questionnaires were completed and analysed. Participants who were experiencing current pain or discomfort totalled 37.2% (n=143) and those participants experiencing pain in more than one region was 23.2% (n=89). The most common prevalence of pain was lower thoracic pain and/or discomfort affecting 6.3% (n=24) of participants and a combination of regions was reported by 20.3% (n=78) of participants. The more specific locations of pain and/or discomfort were lower thoracic pain/discomfort reported in 16% (n=62), posterior neck pain in 12% (n=46), posterior left shoulder pain in 8.9% (n=34), posterior right shoulder pain in 7.6% (n=29) and the occipital region pain in 7.6% (n=29). The reason for location of lower thoracic pain/discomfort being higher than that of lower thoracic pain, was due to a combination factor of regional pain being reported by 20.3% (n=78) of participants, when reporting on the prevalence of pain. Participants experiencing no associated symptoms was 0.5% (n=2). Types of pain experienced that was reported in this study consisted of dull achy pain found in 2.6% (n=10) and sharp shooting pain consisted of 2.6% (n=10) of participants. Dysfunction reported was headaches in 4.4% (n=17) and stiffness in 2.9% (n=11) of participants. Pain intensity versus typing technique revealed a statistical significance between pain intensity and preferred typing technique (p=0.001). Conscious aggravation of pain and use vs demographics showed three statistically significant results occurring between years enrolled (p=0.014), hand dominance (p=0.039) and occupation (p=0.010) with respect to current aggravation by a mobile phone. Conscious aggravation of pain and use vs technique showed a statistical significance with respect to phone orientation (p=0.044). Conclusion: This studies prevalence may have decreased, but the incidence of pain and/or discomfort is consistent with the knowledge of previous studies conducted on the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain associated with mobile device usage. Though due to the uniqueness in design, one can now associate estimated factors and see that focus needs to be placed on an ergonomic approach (Hooper 2014) consisting of a holistic perspective with both phone user and work space environment factors. Dahl (2000) breaks down the biopsychosocial approach into factors of importance such as physical, cognitive, cultural, perceptual and sensing systems, biorhythms and disabilities, work experience, communication and vocational training, as well as health history and occupational stress. It would be best applied in conjunction with the use of chiropractic spinal manipulation, as well as manual therapeutic therapies and other modalities used by chiropractors that have been shown to be effective in the conservative treatment of conditions such as myofascial pain syndromes caused by myofascial trigger points, tendinopathies and chronic neck pain and especially in conjunction with exercise therapy (Pfefer 2001; Vernon and Schneider 2009)