Frequency of De Quervain's tenosynovitis and its association with SMS texting.

OBJECTIVE: to assess the frequency of De Quervain's tenosynovitis and its association with SMS texting.

METHOD: a cross-sectional survey was conducted among undergraduate students studying in different physical therapy schools of Karachi belonging to both public and private sectors. Sample size was 300 students which were selected through convenience sampling. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaire and severity of the pain was assessed through Universal Pain Assessment Tool and De Quervain's tenosynovitis was diagnosed through Finkelstein test. Data entry and analysis were done using computer software SPSS version 20. Frequency and percentages were taken for categorical variable. Chi-square was applied to determine association between different variables and Finkelstein test. P value < 0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS: male/female ratio was 1:4. Regarding the use of cell phones, majority 165 (55%) were using regular cell phones, another 89 (30%) were using touch screen and 38 (13%) were using QWERTY key pads. Almost half of the students were frequently using cell phones for texting, out of them 132 (44%) texted less than 50 messages per day. Another 96 (32%) did texting between 50-100 texts. Out of 300 students who filled the questionnaire 125 (42%) students were experiencing pain in the thumb/wrist. Finkelstein test when done on students almost half (n=149) showed positive results. It was noted that as frequency of mobile phone usage increased progressively more and more people showed positive Finkelstein Test (p value 0.000).

CONCLUSION: the result of the study concluded that almost half of the students use their mobile phones for texting more than 50 S.M.S per day and because of their mobile key pads and high speed of texting they experienced pain and weakness over the base of the thumb/wrist which shows the De Quervain's positive in that students and there is a positive association between the thumb pain and frequent text messaging.