ABSTRACT
Background: With the advancement in digital world, but smart phone usage has increased among all age groups but youngsters are involved in heavy gaming on smart phones which has led to increased risk of ill-effects especially on eyes and hands. Aim and Objectives: The study was designed to study the ill-effects of excessive usage if smart phones on peripheral nerves of hands especially of dominant hand among young adults. Materials and Methods: Nerve conduction study was performed on 100 young adults who were divided into three groups on the basis of mobile usage time. Nerve conduction velocities as well as distal latencies of motor and sensory nerves of the dominant hand were measured among different groups. Results: One-way ANOVA test was applied to study the results among different groups. Although no significant difference in conduction velocity or latency was observed in motor or sensory nerves among three groups, Ulnar sensory conduction velocity has been found to be slow as well as distal latency was found to be prolonged in third group with heavy usage of smart phones as compared to other groups. Conclusion: The reason for the above results could be due to less usage time in hours as well as in years due to which no significance differences were observed in conduction velocity/distal latency in our study. Hence, further studies are suggested with more sample size and more usage time in terms of years as well as in hours.
ABSTRACT
Background: Mobile phones occupy a significant place in our day to day life. Psychological stress involves the relationship between an individual and the environment and this is appraised by the individual as a threat to his wellbeing. Stroop effect is considered as an indicator of attention disorder and general mood fluctuations. Aim: To study the effect of six weeks of breathing exercise training on perceived stress and stroop effect in chronic smart phone users. Materials and methods: After obtaining approval from the Institute Human Research and Ethics Committee, present study was conducted at Department of Physiology, Govt. Thiruvarur Medical College, Thiruvarur on 60 healthy volunteers (30 females and 30 males) who use smart phones more than 4 hours/day for 1 year were included in the study. Breathing exercise training was given to them for 15 minutes in two sessions per day for 5 days in a week for a total period of 6 weeks. Perceived Stress Score (PSS) and Stroop effect was recorded before and after 6 weeks of study period. Intergroup comparison was done by Student’s unpaired t-test. and intra group comparison was done by Student’s paired t-test. Dinesh T, Dinesh Kumar E, Rajajeyakumar M, Charumathi V. Effect of short-term breathing exercise training on perceived stress and Stroop effect in chronic smartphone users. IAIM, 2018; 5(11): 1-7. Page 2 Results: Average age of the male and female volunteers was 19.9 +1.18 and 19.5+1.07 respectively. There was a significant decrease in Perceived Stress (p<0.001 and p<0.01) among the male and female volunteers respectively. Also there was a statistically significant improvement in stroop effect in male (p<0.001) and female volunteers (p<0.01). The improvements were higher in males compared to females. Conclusion: Results of our study indicates that regular practice of breathing exercises even for short duration like six weeks improves autonomic functions, reduces perceived stress which in turn improves stoop effect