The influence of educational intervention, according to ergonomic principles on neck and shoulder disability and pain indices relevant to smartphones, among students.

BACKGROUND: The increasing usage of smartphones by students has caused awkward ergonomic postures which have led to musculoskeletal pain and disabilities, especially in the neck and shoulder, the purpose of the current study is the reduction of neck and shoulder pain and disability, via an educational intervention, according to comprehensive ergonomic principles. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The current study, which was an educational intervention, has been implemented with both intervention and control groups in the form of pre-test and post-test, including intervention group control group, in the years, 2023 and 2024 in Iran. Participants from both separate schools of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences completed the NDI (Neck Disability Index), DASH (Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand) questionnaires, and VAS (Visual Analog Scale) to determine the disability and pain indices in both neck and shoulder, and then, the educational intervention was conducted, for the ergonomic usage of smartphone, during three consecutive days, after two months (eight sessions for reminding which considered one session per week) of implementation of the program by the volunteers. Participants completed the mentioned questionnaires again, and then, data analysis was conducted by statistical software SPSS version 23. RESULT: The findings depict more NDI, compared to DASH and more Neck-VAS, compared to Shoulder-VAS, as well as, NDI (P = 0.003), DASH (P = 0.001), Neck-VAS (P = 0.000), and Shoulder-VAS indices (P = 0.041) have statistically been decreased significant, among the post-test intervention group, compared to the pre-test intervention group, in addition to, the four last mentioned indices have statistically been reduced significant, respectively (P = 0.005), (P = 0.043), (P = 0.04), and (P = 0.006) among the post-test intervention group, compared to the post-test control group. CONCLUSION: The training in the ergonomic principles of Stanford University can reduce neck and shoulder pain and disability indices among smartphone users.