The association between smartphone addiction and thumb/wrist pain: A cross-sectional study

Many smartphone users experience pain in the thumb/wrist. This pain can be due to certain types of hand injuries as well as inflammation of the extensor pollicis brevis and the abductor pollicis longus tendon sheaths, known as De Quervain tenosynovitis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between smartphone addiction and wrist/thumb pain and to determine the severity of the pain, as well as to calculate the prevalence of De Quervain tenosynovitis among medical students at King Abdulaziz University (KAU) in Jeddah. A total of 387 medical students were enrolled. The smartphone addiction scale-short version (SAS-SV) was used to divide participants into the smartphone addict group and non-addict group. Both groups completed the self-administered patient-rated wrist and hand evaluation (PRWHE) questionnaire to evaluate wrist/hand pain. The Finkelstein test was administered to those who reported pain in the thumb/wrist. Two hundred fifty-seven (66.4%) participants were smartphone addicts; 74 (19.1%) had a positive Finkelstein test. There was a significant correlation between smartphone addiction and high PRWHE scores (P = .036). Our study found the prevalence of smartphones addiction among university students to be high (66%), furthermore a correlation between heavy smartphones usage and hand pain was found which indicates that heavy usage of these devices can cause subclinical effects on the human hand.