2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Does smartphone use really induce neck pain? : Elucidation of paradoxes by interdisciplinary teams

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	19H01609
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 08030:Family and consumer sciences, and culture and living-related
Research Institution	University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (2021-2022) Nagoya City University (2019-2020)
Principal Investigator	Ebara Takeshi 産業医科大学, 産業生態科学研究所, 教授 (50405156)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	松河剛司愛知工業大学, 情報科学部, 准教授 (30580518) 松田文子公益財団法人大原記念労働科学研究所, 研究部, 特別研究員 (40399340) 石井賢治公益財団法人大原記念労働科学研究所, 研究部, 研究員 (70422079) 山本奈央名古屋市立大学, 大学院経済学研究科, 准教授 (70551662)
Project Period (FY)	2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
Keywords	頸部痛 / 人間工学 / 自主対処行動 / 行動科学 / スマホアプリ / 自律性
Outline of Final Research Achievements	Recent research has raised interest in the relationship between neck pain and the use of smartphones/information devices. Although such device use tends to induce prolonged forward-bending neck posture, the causality between such biomechanical factors and neck pain has not been clearly established. we developed an mobile health app that can comprehensively measure physical activities such as neck posture/movement and number of steps using wearable sensors. This study investigated the effects of physical activities during smartphone/information device use on neck pain using the app. A longitudinal survey was conducted under actual working and living conditions for eligible 23 participants x consecutive 14 days. The results showed that neck posture and movement were not associated with neck pain. In contrast, the autonomy such as work time control directly affected neck pain, suggesting that biomechanical factors and neck pain cannot be discussed in a simple dose-response relationship.
Free Research Field	人間工学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	先行研究で示される頸部痛のリスク要因としては，個人要因（年齢，性差，遺伝素因，肥満など）、心理社会要因（ストレス，うつ，不安など），物理的要因（姿勢，頸部負荷，身体不活動性など）がある。その中で頸部痛の急激な増加を説明するために白羽の矢が立てられているのがスマホ利用強度の増加である。近年スマホ接触時間はTV視聴時間の2倍近い161分(/日)と急増しており、頸部痛とスマホ利用の関係性が疑われている。小さな画面での操作・閲覧による特異的な頸部屈曲角度、スマホ使用時間・依存度など，実験研究・質問票研究により解明が試みられているが，未だ因果関係は立証できておらず、学術的・社会的にも大きな意義を持つ。