Effect of smartphone application on pain, disability and forward head posture on young adults with excessive usage of a smartphone: A pilot study

Abstract

Background. Excessive usage of smartphones has been linked to forward head posture (FHP) leading to musculoskeletal disorders of the spine. Objective. To determine the effect of smartphone applications on pain and disability levels in the neck, shoulder, lower back and FHP among young adults with excessive smartphone usage. Methods. In this randomised controlled pilot study, 31 young adults (24 female and 7 male, aged 21.35 (standard deviation 1.74 years) who exhibited excessive smartphone usage were enrolled. They were recruited from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos in Nigeria and randomly allocated to three groups: smartphone application (SPA) only, SPA with ergonomic advice (SPA+EA) and EA only. Outcome assessments were conducted before, at 4 weeks, and after 8 weeks of the intervention. Results. The outcome of this study revealed significant improvements in the assessed variables across all three groups (SPA, SPA+EA, EA) post intervention, including FHP (p=0.0001, p=0.003, p=0.002), pain intensity in the neck (p=0.01, p=0.02, p=0.0001), neck disability level (p=0.0001, p=0.0001, p=0.0001), functional disability (p=0.001, p=0.001, p=0.007) and shoulder pain disability (p=0.0001, p=0.001, p= 0.0001). However, no significant between-group differences (p>0.05) were noted in the outcomes across the groups, except for FHP (p=0.027) at the end of the 8th week of intervention. Conclusion. It was concluded that the SPA group was more effective in improving FHP, though all the groups displayed significant effects in all the outcomes.