Impact of laptop usage on symptoms leading to musculoskeletal disorders

Abstract

Due to inherent portability of laptops, users frequently assume inconvenient postures while using them that may lead to discomfort or injury. The study was conducted to evaluate the postures and identify the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in girls using laptops for which 100 college going female students between 18 - 25 years age group were selected through random sampling technique. A self-structured questionnaire was used to assess the laptop usage among adolescents and Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) was used to assess the posture of students while working with laptop. Standardized Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (SMSQ) was used to assess the nature and severity of self-rated musculoskeletal symptoms. Results revealed that the maximum respondent’s (74%) posture came under Action level 3 and 26% respondents comes under Action level 2 which indicated that the posture needed “further investigation and may need change” or “changes needed soon”. There was a positive correlation in Normal (0.50), Mild (0.31), Moderate (0.56) and Severe users (0.60) between the posture adopted by the respondents and the incidence of pain in last 12 months and in Normal (0.76), Mild (0.52), Moderate (0.56) and Severe user (0.65) respectively in last 7 days. The Musculoskeletal Symptoms was prominent in various anatomic regions like Neck, Shoulders, Upper back and Lower back, respectively. These symptoms if not addressed at an earlier stage might lead to Musculoskeletal Disorders.