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Text Message Injury?
Dr M Robinson on TMI
02nd November 2009
Nearly 4 million people living in the UK have experienced text-related injuries, as reported by Virgin Mobile.
Virgin's report follows warnings concerning BlackBerry Thumb and iPod Finger. Listen to your body or more importantly your hands and wrists, say the experts.
Be on the look out for numb fingers and strained or aching wrists. These are a signal to stop texting or using your mobile device.
RSI, (repetitive strain injury) symptoms include hand, wrist or finger pain and immobility in the joints, nerves and muscles from the fingers to the neck. These are caused by repetitive movements and fatigue resulting from unnatural stresses and strains on the body.
It is frequently found in younger people who have embraced mobile messaging. Texting is also a cause.
In 2007-2008, 3.8m people complain of injuries resulting from text messaging, according to the nationwide survey by the BDA.
Each day, almost 100m texts are sent in the UK – so perhaps it is no surprise that 38 per cent of us suffer from sore wrists and thumbs as a result.
The problem stems from the small size of mobiles. People tend to hold the device in their fingers and press the tiny keys with their thumbs. This reverses the computer keyboard position, where clumsy thumbs are relegated to the space bar and let fingers do the typing.
And while most text messages are short, the survey shows that users make up for this by sending a lot of them: 10 per cent of those surveyed send up to 100 texts a day.
British Chiropractic Association (BCA) spokesperson Doctor Bennett was unsurprised by the findings and is quoted as saying ....
"BCA chiropractors recognise that text messaging regularly, over a long period of time, could cause repetitive strain which may cause both short and long term injuries," he said.
Doctor Bennett expects the problem to worsen in 2008-2009. Cheery chap!
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Text messaging Injury
The number of recorded cases is still relatively low but mobile phone users are at risk of developing various RSI-type conditions..
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