A cross-sectional study of the scapular muscles’ endurance in young healthy smartphone addicts and smartphone non-addicts, using scapular muscle endurance test

Background: Mobile phones have become an indispensable part of our day-to-day lives. The increasing dependency of people on smartphones has led to smartphone addiction among people. Extended use of smartphones in awkward postures with neck bent and arms unsupported requires significant stability of the scapular muscles to produce distal hand movements. The scapular muscles are thus under constant tension to achieve stability while transferring forces and motions along the kinetic chain requiring good endurance in the long run. The present study was thus aimed to compare the scapular muscle endurance of smartphone addicts versus non - addicts.
Methodology: Smartphone Addiction Scale - Short Version (SAS - SV) scores were used to categorize 242 subjects into two groups (121 subjects in each group); Group 1 - Smartphone Addicts and Group 2 - Smartphone Non - Addicts. Scapular muscles’ endurance was assessed for all the subjects using the Scapular Muscle Endurance test and the time duration was noted.
Results: Independent t-test was used to test the statistical significance of Scapular Muscle Endurance in Group 1 and Group 2. The observed difference between Group 1 and Group 2 was 24.07 seconds (p-value = 0.000).
Conclusion: The scapular muscle endurance was significantly reduced in smartphone addicts as compared to smartphone non - addicts.