Minister Nsanzimana cautions the public about the dangers of smartphone addiction

The Rwanda’s Health Minister, Sabin NSANZIMANA, has issued a warning: prolonged neck flexion, which is the movement of lowering your chin to your chest, can cause head and neck pain, which can increase up to six times. Additionally, the addition is contributing to the “text neck syndrome” epidemic.

According to a shared study article released by Springer Link on October 27, 31% of the 16,602 office workers who took part in the study and used smartphones for an extended period of time—four years—had neck pain. 33.3% of females and 24.5% of males are affected, which is a significant difference. Smartphone Overuse (SO) was identified in 31% and 33% of the participants who were male and female, respectively.

The study’s objectives were to find out how often office workers use their smartphones and whether there is any connection between neck pain and psychological impairment.

The study comes to the conclusion that excessive use of smartphones by office workers raises their risk of neck pain by a factor of six, which in turn increases their risk of psychological distress like anxiety, stress, and depression.

The minister also discussed and taught about the proper grip for a computer or smartphone when texting or reading on his X (formerly Twitter) account in order to reduce the risk of developing headache and neck pain.

” While using smart phone or computer, you should sit or stand straight to avoid harming the neck bones and the backbone”, he shared.