By Catharine Paddock, PhD
Medical News Today has published an article showing that preliminary research on college students in the United States suggests that too much texting can lead to neck and shoulder pain, similar to that found in older adults who develop injuries from prolonged and repeated use of computers.
Judith Gold, ScD, an ergonomics researcher at Temple University, Philadelphia, recently presented the preliminary findings of her study at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting.
Gold, who is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the College of Health Professions and Social Work, where she also directs the Ergonomics and Work Physiology Laboratory, told the press that texting is probably doing for this generation of young adults aged 18 to 21 what years in front of a computer did for older adults: it is putting them at risk of serious injury.
In her preliminary research, Gold found that among college students, the more they texted, the more pain they experienced in their neck and shoulders. She and her team use infrared cameras, motion analysis, and heart rate monitors to study the body’s position in several job-related simulations.
Click here to read the entire article.
[Source: Medical News Today]
