Touch-Screen Technology and Pediatric Population; Hand Skills, Pain and Quality of Life: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Background: Screen media are omnipresent in the lives of individuals of all ages. Research has indicated that parents frequently exhibit  a motionless facial expression while engaging in quiet reading on their mobile devices while replying to text messages. Instances of  disturbances in parent-child interactions have been noted when parents engage in media use, such as texting. We cannot fathom a life  without our intelligent mobile devices. Prolonged use of smartphones might impair the manual abilities of our hands and fingers, such as  dexterity and coordination, as a result of continuous gripping and tapping on the screen.

Objective: In this review, we aimed to highlight the relationship between media screen use and handgrip strength, musculoskeletal pain,  and quality of life among typically developing school-age children.

Methods: An extensive literature search was conducted across multiple databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, and Google  Scholar, to identify studies related to media screen use and its positive and negative effects in children and adolescents.

Conclusion: New  technologies have clearly influenced the way children and adult communicate with others, families with their environment, and  learn about the world. It is also associated with poor cognitive, linguistic, psychological, social and emotional skills. The negative impact  of screen media use on the pediatric population includes obesity, mental health problems, decreased physical activity, unhealthy eating,  headaches, sleep disturbances, psychosocial disturbances, musculoskeletal abnormalities, multi-located pain, hand function problems  and associated reduced health-related quality of life.