New Emirates Medical Journal - Current Issue

Among all the Musculoskeletal Pain (MSP), the most commonly reported MSP among the undergraduate medical students is the neck pain. As the students study for long hours sitting in front of the computers, use incorrect postures while using the computers, mobile phones, reading, etc. The females face neck problems due to increase stress in their daily life. Our study aims to find out how prevalent is the neck pain among female medical students in a Medical University of Karachi.

The study conducted was a cross-sectional survey with a study duration of 4 months i.e. from January, 2018 till April, 2018. A non-probability purposive sampling, conducted among the female undergraduate students of Doctor of Physiotherapy (DPT), Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS), Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm-D) studying in DOW University of Health Science, Ojha campus Karachi. The estimated sample size was 400 including female undergraduate medical students of MBBS, BDS, Pharm-D and DPT of DOW University, Ojha campus. Male medical students and students other than DOW University, Ojha campus were not included in this study. Data was analyzed through SPSS version 16.0. Pearson Chi-Square test was used to see the association between neck pain and different physical parameters of the Neck Disability Index. P-value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

The results showed that out of 400 female medical students 301 students were having neck pain among which 24.8% of students reported no disability, 36.5% reported mild disability, 9.5% reported severe disability, and 4.5% reported complete disability.

It was concluded that the majority of the female medical students were having neck pain with mild disability due to the presence of neck pain.