ABSTRACT
Background: Prolonged and frequent use of mobile phone leads to pain in thumb and hand. Primary prevention strategies have largely been confined to reducing the mobile phone use as it will prevent the repetitive microtrauma
Objective: To assess the frequency and nature of thumb pain among mobile phone user students of Sheikh Khalifa Institute of Allied Health Sciences, Sheikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan
Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted in students of Sheikh Khalifa Institute of Allied Health Sciences, Rahim Yar Khan from 1st October to 31st December 2017. The study subjects were mobile phone user students with ages ranging from 18 to 25 years. Data was collected through non- randomized convenient sampling technique. A performa was designed and 110 study subjects were interviewed regarding the frequency of thumb pain among mobile phone users, after taking their verbal consent. All the data collected was analysed on SPSS version 20.0
Results: From the data of 110 mobile phone users, it was observed that 40% subjects had thumb pain and 60% had no pain. Results showed that only 16.4% were male and 83.6% females. It was noted 91.8% were right handed and 8.2% were left handed
Conclusion: It was concluded that thumb pain is common among students mostly caused by overuse of thumb in mobile phone users. Frequent use of mobile phone for different activities for prolonged periods of time leads to pain and inflammation in thumb and hand