Are mobile phones set to cause a CSM pandemic?

'Smartphone Zombies' courtesy of Wikipedia

By 2020 it is estimated that 70% of the world's population will own a smartphone.  Each day most of us interact with technology every 15 minutes, from mobile phones, to tablets, laptops, watches.... the list is ever growing.

However in order to look at this technology, we bend our neck, looking downwards.  This is thought to contribute to neck pain, a phenomenon referred to as 'text neck' and linked to earlier onset 'wear and tear'. 

In a biomechanical study in 2014 Dr Hansrajj  demonstrated that the more the neck flexes to look at a mobile phone, the more weight loads through the cervical spine, specifically; 27 pounds, at 30 degrees it’s 40 pounds, at 45 degrees it’s 49 pounds, and at 60 degrees it's 60 pounds! [1]

Published online, ahead of print, a Swedish group have been following a group of young adults (20-24years old) over the last 5 years. [2] They assessed a whole host of factors, including their mobile phone usage (e.g. number of text messages sent per day) and presence of muscular pain, such as neck pain. Reassessing this group of almost 8000 young adults periodically over 5 years, they found that overall the presence of neck pain was related to the number of text messages sent.  Digging a little deeper into the data, in those young adults who went on to develop neck pain during the study, symptoms were only present after one year and did not persist at 5 years.     

These studies are headline grabbing, and we  need to be clear - the dots can not yet be connected directly between mobile phone use, wear and tear and subsequent issues like CSM.  However the thought process appears to have some logic to it.  As we cannot live without mobile phones and technology, whilst we wait for more definitive data to emerge, I suppose its simply 'chin up and text on'. 

References

[1] Hansrajj KK Surg Technol Int Assessment of stresses in the cervical spine caused by posture and position of the head Jan 2017
[2] Gustafason E et al Appel Ergon Texting on mobile phones and musculoskeletal disorders in young adults: a five year cohort study. Jan 2017