Physiotherapeutic strategy for cervicalgia resulting from excessive use of Smartphones in students of an Angolan university

Introduction: Neck pain is considered one of the most uncomfortable musculoskeletal problems and has a major impact on the quality of life of individuals, being the fourth leading cause of disability in adults. With technology constantly advancing, giving rise to devices with numerous functions such as smartphones, it contributes greatly to daily activities, especially for students. However, a large part of students overuse their smartphones and spend hours connected in flexed postures, overloading the cervical region. And physiotherapy offers a variety of effective techniques for this dysfunction. Objective: To analyze the effectiveness of the physiotherapeutic strategy in students with neck pain resulting from excessive smartphone use. Methods: A quasi-experimental study with a longitudinal strategy was carried out with a sample of 14 students of both genders who presented neck pain. The intensity of pain, the range of motion of the cervical region were evaluated, and the spurling test was performed. After the evaluation, a pain relief and range of motion increase program was performed in 6 sections. Results: There was a slight improvement in pain intensity with the visual analogue scale (p=0.11), there was an improvement in the range of motion, both in cervical flexion (p=0.002), cervical extension (p=0.002), right and left lateral cervical tilt (p=0.04) and cervical rotation (p=0.03) and there was an improvement in the spurling test (p=0.002). Conclusion: The physiotherapeutic strategy was effective and provided greater functional independence in students with neck pain due to excessive smartphone use