Upper extremities and spinal musculoskeletal disorders and risk factors in students using computers

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effects of computer usage on the musculoskeletal system discomforts (MSD) of Turkish university students, the possible risk factors and study implications (SI).

Methods: The study comprised a total of 871 students. Demographic information was recorded and the Student Specific Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (SsCMDQ) was used to evaluate musculoskeletal system discomforts.

Results: The neck, lower back and upper back areas were determined to be the most affected areas and percentages for SI were 21.6%, 19.3% and 16.3% respectively. Significant differences were found to be daily computer usage time for the lower back, total usage time for the neck, being female and below the age of 21 years (p<0.05) had an increased risk.

Conclusions: The neck, lower back and upper back areas were found to be the most affected areas due to computer usage in university students. Risk factors for MSD were seen to be daily and total computer usage time, female gender and  age below 21 years and these were deemed to cause study interference

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.306.5022

How to cite this:Calik BB, Yagci N, Gursoy S, Zencir M. Upper extremities and spinal musculoskeletal disorders and risk factors in students using computers . Pak J Med Sci 2014;30(6):1361-1366.   doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.306.5022

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.