PREVALENCE OF DEVELOPING IPHONE ELBOW IN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS USING SMARTPHONE

OBJECTIVE The study is intended to identify the prevalence of developing iphone Elbow in young undergraduate physical therapy students using Smartphone. STUDY DESIGN Study design is a cross-sectional observational survey of DPT students METHODOLOGY 206 adolescent students aged 15-28 years, using smart phones frequently or handheld gadgets were asked to fill a questionnaire to analyze the frequency of using smart phones and the activities performed on the devices. The intensity of pain associated with Smartphone usage was identified using VAS scale. COZEN test was performed for diagnosis of Epicondylitis. RESULT Results revealed that the frequency of Smartphone usage is higher between 20 and 21 years of age. Interestingly, the results obtained in this study shows that 67.5% students make calls and 60.7% use video chatting while message reading was found to be 43.7% and sending message is 39.8%. Putting down notes and task orientation is 40%. Comparatively the typing activities of muscles were found to be high. On the VAS scale 35% of participants sometimes feel pain and 10.2% often complain of pain with uneasiness, demonstrating decreased muscular strength. However, regarding posture, youngsters who use sitting posture are 39.3% and those who prefer supine lying posture are 32% while those who never use Smartphone in prone lying are 46.1% and those who rarely use their device in prone are 25.7%. Cozen test was found to be negative in 80.6% and only 19.4% test results turned out to be positive.