rasheedah adebola zibiri

Smartphone is now an inevitable device for the populace, with its use growing progressively worldwide. There is lack of published literature focusing on the consequences of smartphone addiction on middle-aged and older adults in Nigeria. This study investigated the association between smartphone addiction, psychological status, insomnia and pain-related disability of the neck among staff of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (CMUL).

This study involved the use of cross-sectional survey to investigate 271 (106 females, 165 males) staff of CMUL, Lagos, mean age (45.797±9.28 years) via purposive sampling technique in 2022. Four standard questionnaires were used for data collection; smart phone addiction scale (SAS), depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS), neck pain disability index (NDI), and insomnia severity index (ISI).

The results revealed that 80 (29.5%) staff of college of medicine were addicted to smartphone use. Eleven (4.1%) staff of this college had severe depression, 16 (5.9%) had extremely severe anxiety while nine (3.3%) were severely stressed. Nine (3.3%) participants had clinical insomnia and five (1.8%) had moderate to severe problem with their neck. It was revealed that there was a significant association between smartphone addiction, pain-related disability of the neck (p=0.023), and insomnia (p=0.001). However, no significant association existed between depression (p=0.578), anxiety (p=0.060), stress (0.685), and smartphone addiction level of the participants

Smartphone addiction is predominant among staff of CMUL, and it is associated with neck pain-related disability and insomnia.

Neck pain is one of the most common and painful musculoskeletal conditions. It is a problem in societies probably due to the widespread use of electronic gadgets such as computers, mobile phones, and tablets. It causes pain, functional disability, depression, and sleep disturbances. Therapeutic exercises have been known to be one of the major interventions to improve chronic neck pain.

This randomized controlled study aimed to compare the efficacy of muscle energy technique (MET) and neck stabilization exercise (NSE) on pain, neck disability, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance in patients with non-specific chronic neck pain (NSCNP).

Thirty-five participants participated in this study. They were recruited from two hospitals in Lagos state and randomly assigned into 3 groups using computer-generated random number sequence. Group 1 (n = 12) received MET, neck care education (NCE), and infra-red radiation (IR), group 2 (n = 12) received NSE, neck care education (NCE), and IR, and group 3 (n = 11) received NCE and IR. Assessment of pain, neck disability, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance were done using numerical pain rating scale (NPRS), neck disability index (NDI), hospital anxiety depression scale (HADS) and Insomnia severity index (ISI) at baseline, end of 4 weeks and 8 weeks post-intervention. This study lasted for a period of 5 months (May - September, 2017).

The participants in the 3 groups (MET+NCE+IR, NSE+NCE+IR, NCE+IR) indicated significant improvement in all the outcome parameters; pain (P = 0.001, 0.001, 0.001, respectively), disability (P = 0.002, P = 0.002, P = 0.003, respectively), depression (P = 0.02, 0.002, 0.003, respectively), anxiety (P = 0.01, P = 0.002, P = 0.03, respectively), and sleep disturbance (P = 0.01, P = 0.002, P = 0.01, respectively) post-intervention. Significant differences were observed in all outcome parameters except for depression (P = 0.456) and anxiety (P = 0.179) when across group comparisons were performed.

Muscle energy technique and neck stabilization exercises and neck care are all effective in managing pain, neck disability, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance in NSCNP patients, but neck stabilization exercises have a better effect than a muscle energy technique