Prevalence of De-Quervain’s Tenosynovitis among smartphone gamers among University students of Multan

Background: De Quervain tenosynovitis is an inflammatory condition of wrist joint resulting in pain swelling and tenderness on the side of thumb. Repeated thumb movements and overuse of wrist joint contribute to the severity of symptoms. Objectives: To measure the prevalence of De Quervain’s tenosynovitis in cell phone gamers and its relationship to the frequency of cell phone usage/number of hours among gamers. Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted using self-made questionnaire and a valid and reliable Finkelstein’s test was used. The study population was young students of Multan and the data of 300 students was taken. The data was collected from both male and female students using purposive sampling technique. Results: There were 13% gamers having De Quervain’s tenosynovitis. 31% were females and 69% were male students. De Quervain’s tenosynovitis was associated with game playing hours as the statistical analysis showed strong association between tenosynovitis and game playing hours having P-value=0.000. Moreover 87 students felt stressed during playing games and students reported that they felt difficulty during gripping of the objects, twisting the keys and typing on keyboard. Conclusion: Study concluded that De Quervain’s tenosynovitis is prevalent among phone gamers in both male and female and game playing hours was associated with De Quervain’s tenosynovitis. Increase in game playing ours increased the incidence of DQT.