Correlation Between Excessive Smartphone Usage Pattern and the Prevalence of Medial Epicondylar Pain
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Abstract
Background: Excessive smartphone use is increasingly recognized as a potential contributor to musculoskeletal symptoms among young adults because prolonged screen time, sustained gripping, repetitive thumb and wrist movements, one-handed handling, and prolonged elbow positioning may increase mechanical loading across the upper limb. Objective: To determine the frequency of self-reported elbow/medial epicondylar-region pain and examine its association with smartphone-use patterns among university students and young adults. Methods: This cross-sectional observational survey included 196 participants aged 18–30 years recruited from the University of Lahore and the University of Lahore Teaching Hospital using convenience sampling. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, Visual Analog Scale, and Smartphone Addiction Scale–Short Version. Descriptive statistics and chi-square-based association testing were performed using SPSS version 25.0. Results: The mean age was 24.52 ± 3.72 years, and 106 participants (54.1%) were female. Smartphone use exceeded 3 hours/day in 161 participants (82.1%), while 126 participants (64.3%) reported one-handed use. Elbow pain was reported by 90 participants (45.9%) over the previous 12 months and 63 participants (32.1%) over the previous 7 days. The Pearson chi-square test did not show a statistically significant association between smartphone-use pattern and elbow/medial epicondylar-region pain (χ² = 218.716, df = 216, p = 0.436), although sparse expected cell counts limited interpretability. Conclusion: Elbow-region pain was common among frequent smartphone users, but the available analysis did not provide statistically robust evidence of an independent association with smartphone-use patterns.
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