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The Impact of Smartphone Usage on Hand and Nerve Surgical Pathology: an Online Crowdsourcing Study
Ruby Rose Taylor, BS; Anshumi Desai, MD; Kashyap K Tadisina, MD
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL
Introduction Smartphones have increased productivity, but their overuse leads to more finger, hand, and elbow pain. Repetitive movements like texting can cause altered biomechanics and stress. Despite rising injuries, there is limited research on surgical hand pathology and associations with smartphone use. This study utilized crowdsourcing marketplace technology to examine hand and nerve pathologies from smartphone use, aiming to identify at-risk individuals, common patterns, and associations to develop preventative and treatment strategies.
MethodsAn Amazon Mechanical Turk (mTurk) online survey examining mobile device use and hand/nerve pain was designed and implemented. Participants included were adults age ?18yo. Data collected covered demographics, education, employment, work setting, hours, and cell phone usage.
Results348 surveys were included for analysis. Majority of respondents were aged 25-34 (n=262), 245 males (70.4%), 203 of Hispanic/Latino origin (58.3%), and 309 respondents with a Bachelor's degree (88.7%). 203 (58.3%) of respondents were ages 10-20 when they had their first cell phone and 131 (37.6%) have had access to a cell phone for 11-20 years. 332 (95.4%) respondents reported use of cell phone for work communication and 191 (59.4%) reported cell phone usage 6-10 hours/day. 220 (63.2%) respondents reported primarily using two thumbs for texting. Overall, 201 (57.7%) reported hand/forearm pain at least half of the time with cell phone usage.
A pain score of 5 or more was reported by 252 (72.4%) respondents at the forearm and 221(63.5%) at the wrist. The most prominent location of pain was the thumb IP joint (n=78) (22.4%) followed by the thumb MP joint (n=75) (21.6 %), and the thumb CMC joint (n=43) (12.4%). The most common symptom reported was numbness (n=83) (23.9%), followed by burning (n=71) (20.4%).
ConclusionsHand/forearm symptoms were present in 57.7% of the population and were more common in those aged 25-34 years. Symptoms reported include numbness, burning, tingling, and aching. These reported symptoms may be attributable to surgical hand pathology and potential treatment in the future. As mobile device use increases, this data is important for the hand surgeon. Future studies are planned to continue investigation of common manifestations hand/nerve pathologies due to smartphone usage.
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