Prevalence of Text Neck Syndrome Among Medical Students in Chennai, India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Bad head postures while using mobile phones or other electronic gadgets may eventually cause text neck syndrome. If not treated, this could lead to stress injury and nerve damage. It can also lead to chronic pain in the neck and shoulder, headaches, and long-term problems in the alignment of the spine if left uncorrected.

To assess the prevalence of text neck syndrome in medical students and to identify the factors associated with it.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in the anatomy department of Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital situated in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, from January to March 2025. The study was conducted among 303 undergraduate medical students studying in the second, pre-final, and final years, selected using a purposive sampling method. A pre-tested structured questionnaire collected data, and the Neck Disability Index (NDI) was used to assess the severity of neck disability. Data was collected and entered into an Excel data sheet (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA) and analysed by using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26 (Released 2018; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States).

The mean age of the study participants was 21 ± 2.2. About 167 (56%) were males, and 136 (44%) were females. From the NDI questionnaire, the self-rated disability due to neck pain was found to be 105 (34.7%) with mild disability, 93 (30.70%) with moderate disability, and 23 (7.6%) with severe disability. This analysis showed a statistically significant association, P < 0.05, between the variable lack of awareness, P = 0.006, and the text neck syndrome. The chi-square test was used as the statistical method for this analysis.

The prevalence of undergraduate medical students presenting with text neck syndrome was very high, with the majority showing mild to moderate neck disability. Lack of awareness about posture and lack of ergonomic practices are significantly associated with text neck syndrome. Early implementation of an awareness program and preventive ergonomic interventions will help in reducing long-term musculoskeletal complications.