With roughly 80% of jobs being sedentary, often requiring several hours of sitting stooped in front of a computer screen, neck pain is a growing occupational hazard.
Smartphones and other devices have also caused people to bend their necks for prolonged periods. But is bad posture solely to blame?
In a new study from Texas A&M University, researchers found that while the poor neck and head postures are indeed the primary determinants of neck pain, body mass index, age and the time of the day also influence the neck’s ability to perform movements.
According to the Global Burden of Disease Study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, neck pain is ranked as the fourth leading cause of global disability.
One of the main reasons for neck pain has been attributed to lifestyle, particularly when people spend long durations of time with their necks bent forward.
In the study, the team recruited 20 adult men and 20 adult women with no previous neck-related issues to perform controlled head-neck exertions in a laboratory setting.
The team found work-related factors like head/neck posture play a very important role in determining both neck strength and endurance.
But they also observed that while there was no significant difference between male and female subjects’ in neck endurance, body mass index was a significant predictor of neck endurance.
Also, to their surprise, the time of day affected the neck’s ability to sustain an exertion without fatigue.
The researchers say their database of neck strength and endurance is also necessary for building advanced musculoskeletal biomechanical models of the neck, which can then be used to, for example, tease apart specific neck muscles that are more vulnerable to injury.
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The study is published in Human Factors. One author of the study is Xudong Zhang.
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