“Text Neck” Is Ruining Your Posture, and Here’s How to Fix It
In this video, learn tips for reducing or preventing “text neck,” or neck pain caused by poor posture while using phones and tablets.
Text neck may be indirectly causing thousands of hospital visits a year — and not just by Snapchat-savvy teens. Every decade since 1993, the World Health Organization has listed neck pain as the fourth-highest cause of years living with a disability, ranking ahead of common health concerns like migraines, diabetes, and alcohol abuse. Clearly, our 21st-century posture has become a literal pain in the neck.
As with all things, balance and self-care are key. Here’s what experts recommend to prevent text neck.
References
Fares, J., et al. (2017). Musculoskeletal neck pain in children and adolescents: risk factors and complications. Surgical Neurology International.
Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 Collaborators. (2015). Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 301 acute and chronic diseases and injuries in 188 countries, 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. Lancet.
MedlinePlus. (2017). Guide to good posture.
MedlinePlus. (2022). Neck pain.
Nejati, P., et al. (2015). The study of correlation between forward head posture and neck pain in Iranian office workers. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health.