Computers can cause neck pain

Computers can cause neck pain
Islamabad: Sitting in front of computers for prolonged hours may cause or aggravate neck pain, at least in teenage school going children.

Research in the past has reported a high prevalence of headaches and neck pain among adolescents. Sitting for lengthy periods in fixed postures such as at computer terminals may result in neck pain and headaches, BBC reported.

To explore the association between computer use and headaches/neck pain among adolescent school students, researchers from Australia followed 1073 high-school students in South Africa. The researchers assessed duration of computer use and reports of headache and neck pain among the study participants who were 16 years old on average. Nearly half the students attended schools that used computers.

Of the students enrolled in schools with computers, 43 per cent used computers for nine hours or more per week. The researchers noted similar duration of use in just six per cent of the students enrolled in schools without computers.

No clear association could be found between higher computer use and headaches. By contrast, neck pain was more common among students who reported longer hours of computer use, regardless of computer availability at school.

Among the students who spent 5 or fewer hours using a computer each week, about 16 per cent reported neck pain; among students reporting 25 to 30 hours of computer use a week, nearly 48 per cent reported neck pain.

The above findings have confirmed the need to educate school students about their posture while using computers. The news