Tingkat Pengetahuan Mahasiswa Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Sumatera Utara mengenai Hubungan Nyeri Leher dengan Durasi Penggunaan Smartphone Berlebihan

Abstract

Background: Smartphone has intergrated into our modern daily life. Indonesia ranked 7 out of 12 countries with the longest duration of smartphone usage. Excessive usage of smartphones can be associated with the risk of neck pain. It has been found that there is low awareness regarding this epidemic in young adult population as well as medical student population. No literature on the level of knowledge regarding correlation between neck pain associated with excessive smartphone usage has been found. Aim: This study aims to find out the level of knowledge of medical students of University of North Sumatra on neck pain caused by excessive duration of smartphone usage. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study using consecutive sampling method. Primary data is collected using the self-made 15-question questionnaire. Results: Out of 88 participants, 50% had moderate knowledge, 35,2% had poor knowledge and 14,8% had “good” knowledge. 53,4% respondents had “poor” knowledge regarding neck pain in general while 36,4% had “poor” knowledge regarding pathogenesis of neck pain caused by excessive smartphone usage. Majority of female students had “moderate” knowledge (55,6%) while majority of male students had “poor” knowledge (47,1%). Female students had higher mean percentage of knowledge (62,2%) compared to male students (54,1%). 48,4% of cohort 2019 had “moderate” knowledge. 57,1% of cohort 2020 had “moderate” knowledge while 48,3% of cohort 2021 had “poor” knowledge. Cohort 2019 had the highest mean percentage of knowledge (63,9%) compared to the other two cohorts (61,2% and 52%). Conclusion: Data shows that there was “moderate” knowledge among the medical students of University of North Sumatra, with the division of knowledge regarding neck pain in general showing “poor” knowledge of students of University of North Sumatra as well as pathogenesis of neck pain caused by smartphone usage showing “poor” knowledge as well. Female students and cohort 2019 had the highest mean percentage of knowledge.