Musculoskeletal symptoms and computer use among Finnish adolescents--pain intensity and inconvenience to everyday life: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Musculoskeletal symptoms among adolescents are related to the time spent using a computer, but little is known about the seriousness of the symptoms or how much they affect everyday life. The purpose of the present study was to examine the intensity of musculoskeletal pain and level of i...

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Published in:BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 41 - 42
Main Authors: Hakala, Paula T, Saarni, Lea A, Punamäki, Raija-Leena, Wallenius, Marjut A, Nygård, Clas-Håkan, Rimpelä, Arja H
Format: research Journal Article
Published: BioMed Central 2012
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      pub: BioMed Central
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        10.1186/1471-2474-13-41
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        104359935
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        atl: Musculoskeletal symptoms and computer use among Finnish adolescents--pain intensity and inconvenience to everyday life: a cross-sectional study.
      aug:
        au:
          Hakala, Paula T
          Saarni, Lea A
          Punamäki, Raija-Leena
          Wallenius, Marjut A
          Nygård, Clas-Håkan
          Rimpelä, Arja H
        affil: School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. paula.t.hakala@uta.fi
      sug:
        subj:
          Activities of Daily Living
          Computer Terminals
          Economic Aspects of Illness
          Musculoskeletal Diseases Etiology
          Pain Etiology
          Quality of Life
          Adolescence
          Chi Square Test
          Child
          Cross Sectional Studies
          Finland
          Human
          Logistic Regression
          Multivariate Analysis
          Musculoskeletal Diseases Diagnosis
          Musculoskeletal Diseases Physiopathology
          Musculoskeletal Diseases Psychosocial Factors
          Odds Ratio
          Pain Diagnosis
          Pain Physiopathology
          Pain Psychosocial Factors
          Pain Measurement
          Questionnaires
          Risk Assessment
          Risk Factors
          Severity of Illness Indices
          Time Factors
          Adolescent: 13-18 years
          Child: 6-12 years
      ab: Background: Musculoskeletal symptoms among adolescents are related to the time spent using a computer, but little is known about the seriousness of the symptoms or how much they affect everyday life. The purpose of the present study was to examine the intensity of musculoskeletal pain and level of inconvenience to everyday life, in relation to time spent using a computer.Methods: In a survey, 436 school children (12 to 13 and 15 to 16 years of age), answered a questionnaire on musculoskeletal and computer-associated musculoskeletal symptoms in neck-shoulder, low back, head, eyes, hands, and fingers or wrists. Pain intensity (computer-associated symptoms) and inconvenience to everyday life (musculoskeletal symptoms) were measured using a visual analogue scale. Based on the frequency and intensity, three categories were formed to classify pain at each anatomic site: none, mild, and moderate/severe. The association with time spent using the computer was analyzed by multinomial logistic regression.Results: Moderate/severe pain intensity was most often reported in the neck-shoulders (21%); head (20%); and eyes (14%); and moderate/severe inconvenience to everyday life was most often reported due to head (29%), neck-shoulders (21%), and low back (16%) pain. Compared with those using the computer less than 3.6 hours/week, computer use of ≥ 14 hours/week, was associated with moderate/severe increase in computer-associated musculoskeletal pain at all anatomic sites (odds ratio [OR] = 2.9-4.4), and moderate/severe inconvenience to everyday life due to low back (OR = 2.5) and head (OR = 2.0) pain.Conclusions: Musculoskeletal symptoms causing moderate/severe pain and inconvenience to everyday life are common among adolescent computer users. Daily computer use of 2 hours or more increases the risk for pain at most anatomic sites.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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