Journal of Ergonomics
Open Access

Impact of Texting and Website Use on Musculoskeletal Disorders Risk Factors

Ronald George^{* *}Correspondence: Ronald George, Department of Nursing, Benha University, Benha, Egypt, Email:

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Description

The smartphone is an unavoidable device in the daily life of young adults around the world. For example, in the United States or in France, more than 95% of 18-35 years old own one. Moreover, the amount of time spent using them on a daily basis is constantly increasing. Among the multiple functionalities available on these devices, sending a message, browsing the Internet or watching videos are the most used. Faced with this growing penetration of the smartphone within the population, many studies have investigated these different interactions. The examination of texting has received a lot of attention since it is the most popular form of communication among young academics. There are many typing styles, postures, and muscular movements used when composing messages, according to experimental and observational investigations. The numerous works have documented high pressures placed on the thumbs and pronounced neck flexion. Studies on texting sometimes include online surfing or viewing videos. Several studies using experimental techniques have also been offered.

Positions of engagement with a cohort of 800 students, including sitting and standing. The influence of location and when doing these various tasks on head flexion was investigated. They discovered more flexion when sitting and texting. Similarly, more head flexion was seen during texting compared to online surfing, highlighting the existence of differing postural strategies between the head and boot between sitting and standing for these two tasks. Several studies have found comparable benefits in different contexts, such as walking. The support had an influence on the upper limb's shoulder flexion, elbow, and wrist. Another study discovered an ulnar deviation when using a smartphone with one hand. The danger of acquiring musculoskeletal problems in the medium/long term to which users are exposed, notably in the neck, shoulders, and limbs, is a prominent issue in all of these study. A 5-year longitudinal research of nearly 7,000 young individuals discovered that messaging had both short-term and long-term impacts on Musculo Skeletal Diseases (MSD)of the neck upper extremities. One of the most obvious approaches to investigate the risk of MSD development is to employ ergonomic equipment.

Postural Loading on the Upper Body Assessment, often known as RULA or the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment. Nevertheless, because these instruments need for measurements of axial skeleton and upper limb joint angles that are infrequently evaluated simultaneously, they are rarely employed in the research of smartphone postures. Based on video analysis, researchers suggested an RULA texting analysis. The same evaluation approach was used in a research that examined the impact of a support on the risk of MSDs occurring while sitting and doing a web surfing task. In the study provided here, a thorough kinematic analysis of the upper body is proposed for two postures and two tasks that young adults employ most frequently.

The key findings of this study were the measurement of young people' upper bodies when they were texting and surfing the web while sitting and standing, as well as the risk of MSDs that went along with it. The research revealed, in particular, that in addition to monitoring neck flexion, it is also important to monitor boot flexion, elbow flexion, and wrist ulnar deviation. MSD involves in the findings imply that all uppe r body joints are engaged to varying degrees in the Depending on the circumstances of the encounter, MSDs can arise when using a smartphone. Initially, the neck is involved, flexing more than 25 degrees while sitting and more than 30 degrees while browsing.

The measured levels are lower than in other research, and the task's impact was not felt. The joint angle measuring method may be able to explain the disparity. Each of the mentioned publications measured neck flexion by recording a starting head position, however in this work, neck flexion was calculated using anatomical norms, or the distance between the head and trunk axes as determined by the 3D kinematics analysis.