Smartphones ‘give teenagers text neck’
SMARTPHONE addiction threatens to create a generation of teenage hunchbacks, experts fear.
Back and neck specialists say that increasing numbers of people are suffering neck pain from spending too much time hunched over phones, computers and tablets.
Worryingly, around half of those with ‘text neck’ are still in their teens – and some patients are as young as seven.
James Carter, a leading Australian chiropractor, said the spine can be pushed over an inch out of alignment and described the condition as ‘the curse of the modern age’.
The average human head weighs between 10lb and 12lb and flexing the neck makes it harder to support, in much the same way as it is easier to carry a heavy shopping bag hugged to the body rather than at arm’s length.
Dr Carter told Australia’s Daily Telegraph: ‘The number of people with text neck presenting to my practice alone has more than doubled over the past year, and 50 per cent of them are now teenagers.
‘Each week I’m seeing on average five teenage patients with problems associated to text neck. A few years ago there would have been only one or two. This is an alarming increase.
‘This condition not only causes structural spinal problems but it can also lead to cognitive probl ems that cause anxiety and depression.’
Increasingly, he added, patients were coming to him with problems such as headaches that could be traced back to their smartphone usage.
A British study carried out earlier this year found that 45 per cent of under-30s complained of a painful back or neck – up from only 28 per cent last year.
Across all age groups, 86 per cent said it was a problem – compared with 77 per cent in 2014. Almost one in four said that they are in pain on a daily basis.
The British Chiropractic Association says that as gadgets get smaller, people are leaning over them more, putting the neck and the shock-absorbing discs that cushion the vertebrae of the spine under added pressure.
The fashion for hot- desking, in which office workers do not have a desk of their own and sit wherever is free, is adding to the problem if the chair and other equipment is not adjusted to suit them.
Medical experts have previously warned of ‘texter’s thumb’ in which people are suffering repetitive strain injury from frantically using mobile phone keypads to send messages.
So called ‘iPod finger’ arises from rotating the MP3 player’s song selection wheel too often.
‘Curse of the modern age’