The DOI matches its Crossref record; 22 of the 22 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Frequent computer-related activities increase the risk of neck–shoulder and low back pain in adolescents
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Neck-shoulder pain (NSP) and low back pain (LBP) increased among adolescents in the 1990s and the beginning of 2000. A potential risk factor for this increase is the use of information and communication technology. We studied how the use of computers, the Internet, and mobile phones, playing digital games and viewing television are related to NSP and LBP in adolescents. METHODS: Mailed survey with nationally representative samples of 14-, 16-, and 18-year-old Finns in 2003 (n = 6003, response rate 68%). The outcome variables were weekly NSP and LBP. RESULTS: NSP was perceived by 26% and LBP by 12%. When compared with non-users, the risk of NSP was 1.3 (adjusted odds ratios) when using computers > 2-3 h/day, and 1.8 when using 4-5 h/day; 2.5 when using computers > or = 42 h/week, and 1.7 when using the Internet > or = 42 h/week. Compared with non-users, the risk of LBP was 2.0 when using computers > 5 h/day, 1.7 when using > or = 42 h/week, 1.8 when using the Internet > or = 42 h/week, and 2.0 when playing digital games > 5 h/day. Times spent on digital gaming, viewing television, and using mobile phones were not associated with NSP, nor were use of mobile phones and viewing television with LBP after adjusting for confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS: Frequent computer-related activities are an independent risk factor for NSP and LBP. Daily use of computers exceeding 2-3 h seems to be a threshold for NSP and exceeding 5 h for LBP. Computer-related activities may explain the increase of NSP and LBP in the 1990s and the beginning of 2000.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Gerr, F., Marcus, M., Ensor, C., Kleinbaum, D., Cohen, S., Edwards, A., Gentry, E., Ortiz, D. J., & Monteilh, C. (2002) · American Journal of Industrial Medicine · doi:10.1002/ajim.10066 · Cited by 559
Health and health behaviour among young people
Gabhainn, S. N., & François, Y. (2000) · Cited by 509
Non-specific low back pain in children and adolescents: risk factors
Balagu�, F., Troussier, B., & Salminen, J. J. (1999) · European Spine Journal · doi:10.1007/s005860050201 · Cited by 406
Self-citationUnderstanding and measurement of muscle tone as related to clinical muscle pain
Simons, G. D., & Mense, S. (1998) · Pain · doi:10.1016/s0304-3959(97)00102-4 · Cited by 353
Korhonen, T., Ketola, R., Toivonen, R., Luukkonen, R., Häkkänen, M., & Viikari-Juntura, E. (2003) · Occupational and Environmental Medicine · doi:10.1136/oem.60.7.475 · Cited by 347
Back, neck, and shoulder pain in Finnish adolescents: national cross sectional surveys
Hakala, P., Rimpelä, A., Salminen, J. J., Virtanen, S. M., & Rimpelä, M. (2002) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7367.743 · Cited by 328
Self-citationThe health of youth. A cross-national survey.
King, A., Wold, B., Tudor‐Smith, C., & Harel, Y. (1996) · PubMed · Cited by 327
Non-specific musculoskeletal pain in preadolescents. Prevalence and 1-year persistence
Mikkelsson, M., Salminen, J. J., & Kautiainen, H. (1997) · Pain · doi:10.1016/s0304-3959(97)00073-0 · Cited by 311
Self-citationSjøgaard, G., Lundberg, U., & Kadefors, R. (2000) · European Journal of Applied Physiology · doi:10.1007/s004210000285 · Cited by 258
Effects of ergonomic intervention in work with video display units
Ketola, R., Toivonen, R., Häkkänen, M., Luukkonen, R., Takala, E.-P., Viikari-Juntura, E., & the Expert Group of Ergonomics (2002) · Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health · doi:10.5271/sjweh.642 · Cited by 208
Cited by
The epidemiology of low back pain
Hoy, D., Brooks, P., Blyth, F., & Buchbinder, R. (2010) · Best Practice & Research Clinical Rheumatology · doi:10.1016/j.berh.2010.10.002 · Cited by 2,037
Yen, C., Tang, T., Yen, J., Lin, H., Huang, C., Liu, S., & Ko, C. (2009) · Journal of Adolescence · doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.10.006 · Cited by 416
Prevalence of low back pain in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis
Calvo-Muñoz, I., Gómez-Conesa, A., & Sánchez-Meca, J. (2013) · BMC Pediatrics · doi:10.1186/1471-2431-13-14 · Cited by 371
The need to address the burden of musculoskeletal conditions
Woolf, A. D., Erwin, J., & March, L. (2012) · Best Practice & Research Clinical Rheumatology · doi:10.1016/j.berh.2012.03.005 · Cited by 357
Costigan, S. A., Barnett, L., Plotnikoff, R. C., & Lubans, D. R. (2013) · Journal of Adolescent Health · doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.07.018 · Cited by 290
Metadata
- Authors
- Hakala, P. T., Rimpelä, A. H., Saarni, L. A., & Salminen, J. J.
- Venue
- European Journal of Public Health
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2006-03-08
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 536-541
- ISSN
- 1101-1262 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-360X
- OpenAlex
- W2131094879
- Cited by
- 337
- References
- 22
- FWCI
- 9.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Frequent computer-related activities increase the risk of neck–shoulder and low back pain in adolescents. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1093/eurpub/ckl025
- The paper
- Hakala, P. T., Rimpelä, A. H., Saarni, L. A., & Salminen, J. J. (2006). Frequent computer-related activities increase the risk of neck–shoulder and low back pain in adolescents. European Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckl025
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.