ABSTRACT
Background: To determine the frequency of De Quervain’s tenosynovitis and its association with Short Message Service (SMS texting). Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of De Quervain’s tenosynovitis in the general population of Karachi, ranging in age from 15-35 years with a sample size of 700 individuals. Participants from different educational backgrounds were included. De Quervain’s tenosynovitis was diagnosed through Finkelstein test. Data entry and analysis were done through SPSS version 20.0. Chi-squared test with 95% confidence interval was applied to compare categorical variables, P value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Male to female ratio was 1:2. A total of 79.3% were undergraduates or below in academic qualification. The education level and the median age were consistent with our target population. An overwhelming majority of 96.7% (678) use touch screen smart phones. Hardly anyone uses standard cell phones (0.7%) or QWERTY keyboard cell phones (1.4%). 1.1% of responders had cell phones of some other type. “Internet Usage” was the most frequent answer on the purpose of using cell phones with 91.6% (642). The next frequent answer was “Texting” with 85.6% of responders. 126 people had other uses for their cellphones apart from internet, texting, calling, reading, or playing games. 58.8% (412) of the 700 responders tested “positive” for the Finkelstein test, demonstrating pain in the wrist and thumb while performing the maneuver. Conclusion: The result of our study concluded that a significant majority of our youth uses touch screen smartphones, weighing an average of 100g, mainly for internet usage and texting. Because of the overuse of thumb musculature, more than half of them experienced pain over the radial side of the wrist and got a positive Finkelstein test which shows there is a positive relationship between De Quervain's and frequent and prolonged smartphone usage. Having a positive result for the Finkelstein test could lead to severe De Quervain's tenosynovitis.