Assessment of Upper Cross Syndrome and Cervicogenic Headache in Smart Phone User

"Smartphone addiction" is a special type of technological addiction. users are drawn to it Even when there isn't a pressing need to use a smartphone. In a study of 2367 university students in Riyadh, the findings showed that 27.2% of participants used their smartphones for more than eight hours a day. When using a smartphone, a person may stay still for extended periods of time or perform certain movements repeatedly, which puts an excessive amount of static load on the neck and shoulder regions. The most common complaints on smartphones were related to neck pain, with prevalence rates ranging from 17.3% to 67.8%. This is because using a smartphone for extended periods of time with flexed-necked posture increases the activity of the upper trapezius and splenius capitis muscles, which can cause pain in the neck and shoulders. upper crossed syndrome (USC) is muscle imbalance between tightness and weakness in the neck, shoulders, and upper back which is a common postural dysfunction pattern. The main UCS feature is forward head posture (FHP) which is a condition occurs when the head shifts from its usual position and moves forward from the cervical spine. Postural abnormalities associated with UCS include change in the activation of the scapula muscles result in scapular instability and mechanical dysfunction in the neck, which can exacerbate pain in the neck ,upper back and headaches. The International Headache Society (IHS) defines cervicogenic headache (CGH) as a secondary type of headache brought on by abnormalities of the cervical spine or any of the bone, soft tissue, or disc components that make up the cervical spine. A recent study evaluated the frequency of cervicogenic headaches caused by excessive use of smart devices found 56% of students experienced cervicogenic headaches as a result of using smart devices excessively and adopting poor posture. So the aim of this study to assess upper cross syndrome and cervicogenic headache between addictive and non-addictive smartphone usage among university physical therapy students.

Inclusion criteria

• 1. Asymptomatic students with normal healthy state 2. Age group between 18-24 years 3. Body mass index between (18-24.9). 4. Addictive smart phone users with score over 31 for male and 33 for female students in smart phone addiction scale (Kwon et al., 2013).

• Minimum of 25 text messages or emails per day, browsing the Internet and/or playing games for more than one hour a day using their smartphone (Mustafaoglu et al., 2021).
• Headache developed in temporal relation to the onset of cervical disorder or appearance of the lesion.
• Headache significantly improved or resolved in parallel with improvement in or resolution of the cervical disorder or lesion.
• Reduced cervical range of motion , and headache was made significantly worse by provocative maneuvers.
• Headache abolished following diagnostic blockade of a cervical structure or its nerve supply

Exclusion criteria

• 1. History of Cervical Trauma or Surgery (Jung et al., 2016). 2. Neck, shoulder, upper back, lower back, elbow, or wrist-hand musculoskeletal trauma (Lee et al., 2015).

• Congenital deformities 4. Serious surgical or neurological diseases 5. Limb injuries 6. Involvement in a formal physical activity program 7. Cervical Spondylosis. 8. Cervical Radiculopathy (Pathan et al., 2021). 9. Shoulder, neck, and back muscle injuries in the past month (Daniel et al., 2022).

• Idiopathic spinal deformity (Elnahhas et al., 2018).