Abstract
The use of the computers and other technical devices has increased. The aim of our work was to study the possible relation between self-reported foot symptoms and use of computers and cell phones using a questionnaire. The study was carried out as a cross-sectional study by posting a questionnaire to 15,000 working-age Finns. A total of 6121 responded, and 7.1% of respondents reported that they very often experienced pain, numbness, and aches in the feet. They also often experienced other symptoms: 52.3% had symptoms in the neck, 53.5% in had problems in the hip and lower back, and 14.6% often had sleeping disorders/disturbances. Only 11.2% of the respondents thought that their symptoms were connected to the use of desktop computers. We found that persons with symptoms in the feet quite often, or more often, had additional physical and mental symptoms. In future studies, it is important to take into account that the persons with symptoms in the feet may very often have other symptoms, and the use of computers can influence these symptoms.
Highlights
Foot pain (FP) is a relatively common complaint in the general population: in a large systematic review based on more than 75,000 participants aged 45 years and over, frequent foot pain was reported by 24% of the participants [1]
As the use of computers and laptops, and mini-computers and cell phones, frequently enhance sedentary behavior and prolonged sitting time, is it possible to find associations between the use of this technical equipment and users’ foot symptoms? We evaluated the frequency of self-reported symptoms and the frequency of the use of personal computers (PCs), laptops, minicomputers, and cell phones
In the analyses of FSFG1, there were some significant differences in the comparison between female daily desktop computer users and nonusers in terms of the aches, pain, or numbness in the shoulder symptoms, and between daily laptop users and nonusers in wrist and finger symptoms
Summary
Foot pain (FP) is a relatively common complaint in the general population: in a large systematic review based on more than 75,000 participants aged 45 years and over, frequent foot pain was reported by 24% of the participants [1]. According to Menz et al [7], exploration of individual MFPDI items indicated that age significantly affected both the pain intensity and functional limitations, with younger people more likely to report their foot pain being worse in the morning and older people more likely to report functional limitations [7]. Working on a computer is considered a typical example of sedentary work (i.e., work that is characterized by long periods of uninterrupted sitting) [8]. This type of work entails various health risks [9,10,11,12]. Commissaris et al [9]
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