PREVALENCE OF NECK AND SHOULDER PAIN COMPLAINTS AMONG COMPUTER USERS

Abstract

The study investigated the prevalence of neck and shoulder pain among computer users. The increase in the use of computer has been linked with the increase complaint of pain and discomfort in different parts of the body among computer users either during or after the use of computer. A  total  of  five hundred and sixty participants were recruited for the study using a thirty-item questionnaire which collected information on the bio-data, educational status, level of computer literacy, duration of computer usage and experience of neck /shoulder pain complaint.

             The results of the five hundred and sixty participants analyzed showed chi-square value of 4.732 at 95% confidence level which indicated that prevalence of neck/ shoulder pain among computer users was not significant going by the p-value of 0.857 obtained from the cross tabulation of the variables, length of computer use and neck/ shoulder pain experienced in the last twelve months.

              From the findings of this study, it was reviewed that both neck and shoulder pains are the common complaints among the computer users. The cause of pain may be attributed to computer use in sustained non-neutral posture and postural stress caused by poor work station ergonomics, such as inappropriate location of the screen, keyboard or mouse; have been associated with musclo-skeletal problems among the users.