The Relationship between Usage of Digital Devices and Musculoskeletal Symptoms: A Cross-Sectional Study among University Students in Sarawak
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v17i09.24605Keywords:
Digital Devices, Musculoskeletal Symptoms, University StudentsAbstract
Digital devices such as mobile phone, personal computer and laptop are playing a major role in students’ life, but if overused they can bring certain impacts on the musculoskeletal system. Objective: To determine the relationship between usage of digital devices and musculoskeletal symptoms among the university students. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire consist of digital devices use items and the Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Question (CMDQ) were administered among 363 311 university students. Correlation analysis was done by using the SPSS software. Results: The mean age of study respondents was 21.6 years old (SD=1.0). A majority of respondents use mobile phone (94.9%) on a prolonged sitting position ranging from 5.0 to 7.5 hours per day. About 32% to 60% of respondents experienced musculoskeletal discomfort in at least one body part at least one on their body parts, with higher prevalence on the neck, shoulder, lower back, and upper back. Females are more prone to experience musculoskeletal symptoms. Time spent on digital devices, eye-to-screen distance, body posture, and age of first use were significantly correlated with musculoskeletal symptoms. Conclusions: University students are at a higher risk to experience musculoskeletal symptoms related to the usage of a handheld digital device. If these musculoskeletal symptoms are not prevented, it may further cause dysfunction and disability. To mitigate these problems, some form of targeted health promotion initiative need to be implemented in the university.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The submitting author warrants that the submission is original and that she/he is the author of the submission together with the named co-authors; to the extend the submission incorporates text passages, figures, data or other material from the work of others, the submitting author has obtained any necessary permission.
Articles in this journal are published under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC-BY What does this mean?). This is to get more legal certainty about what readers can do with published articles, and thus a wider dissemination and archiving, which in turn makes publishing with this journal more valuable for you, the authors.
By submitting an article the author grants to this journal the non-exclusive right to publish it. The author retains the copyright and the publishing rights for his article without any restrictions.