Comparison of musculoskeletal pain and upper extremity disability in smartphone addicts and smartphone non-addicts among university students: A cross-sectional study

The aim of this study was to compare musculoskeletal pain and upper extremity disability between 'smartphone addicts' and 'non-smartphone addicts' and to assess the impact of determinants of musculoskeletal pain and upper extremity disability in both groups. The study included 352 university students aged 18–25 years who used smartphones for at least 1 h per day in the past year. The questionnaire consisted of demographic data, the Smartphone Addiction Scale-short version (SAS-SV), the Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand questionnaire (QuickDASH), and the Verbal Rating Scale. Participants were divided into two groups, 'smartphone addicts' and 'smartphone non-addicts', according to their SAS-SV scores (cut-off for males≥31, females≥33). Participants had a prevalence of smartphone addiction of 38.4%. There was a statistically significant difference between the 'addicted' and 'non-addicted' groups for SAS-SV (p