The results identify an association in the surveyed population but do not prove that mobile gaming causes the reported pain or establish which came first. The study, published in The Open Public Health Journal , was led by Aya Al-Tamimi and colleagues from the Department of Basic Sciences at Al-Balqa Applied University’s Faculty of Medicine in As-salt, Jordan. Investigators surveyed medical students in April 2025, evaluating mobile gaming addiction with the seven-item Gaming Addiction Scale and musculoskeletal symptoms with the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire.

The questionnaire addressed pain in nine body regions, including its presence, frequency and functional effects, and covered symptoms occurring during the preceding seven days and twelve months. Of the 364 students enrolled, 34, or 9%, met the scale’s criteria for mobile gaming addiction. Musculoskeletal pain was common across the full sample: exactly half of all participants reported some form of musculoskeletal pain during the preceding seven days.

The prevalence of pain in several upper-body regions differed markedly between students with and without gaming addiction. Neck pain was reported by 85.3% of students classified as addicted, compared with 65.0% of non-addicted participants. Upper-back pain affected 64.7% and 55.0%, respectively, while wrist or hand pain was reported by 41.2% of addicted students and 34.0% of their non-addicted peers.

The largest contrast appeared for elbow pain, which 41.2% of addicted students reported, compared with 12.5% of non-addicted students. The survey also captured whether pain impaired everyday life. Students classified as addicted to mobile games were more likely to report interference with studying, hobbies and daily activities, and they made more healthcare visits for musculoskeletal complaints than students who did not meet the addiction criteria.

Problematic mobile gaming was therefore associated not only with a greater prevalence of upper-body pain, but also with more disruption of academic and routine activities. Because every measure came from participants’ reports at one point in time, however, the findings do not establish the duration, severity or clinical cause of the reported symptoms. To evaluate whether regional pain was independently related to gaming addiction, the researchers used binary logistic regression.

The analysis accounted for age, gender, weight and height, allowing the researchers to test whether neck and elbow pain remained associated with addiction after those characteristics were considered. Both pain locations remained statistically significant independent associations. The model estimated that students with addiction had more than three times the adjusted odds of reporting neck pain and more than four times the adjusted odds of reporting elbow pain; the elbow result was reported with a p-value below 0.001.

These are adjusted odds ratios from the survey analysis, not measurements of absolute risk or evidence that playing a particular number of additional hours would produce a corresponding increase in pain. The elbow result may be consistent with the physical demands of prolonged mobile-device use, which can involve sustained gripping, a fixed forearm position and repeated small movements. The research release said these patterns can load the forearm extensor muscles and soft tissues around the elbow and may compress the ulnar nerve at the inner elbow.

That mechanism is plausible, but it was not directly measured in this survey. The findings consequently show that the groups differed and that neck and elbow pain remained associated with addiction after adjustment for measured demographic and body-size variables; they do not demonstrate a specific injury pathway. Neither gender nor academic year was significantly associated with gaming addiction in the analysis.

According to the researchers, this suggested that gaming intensity was a stronger indicator of addiction than the demographic characteristics examined. The study described intensity in terms of daily playing time, the number of years spent gaming and money spent on games, although the supplied report does not provide separate effect estimates for those measures. This distinction matters because the analysis established the prevalence of the scale-defined addiction classification and its association with pain; it did not show that every additional hour of play necessarily produced a measurable increase in symptoms.

The strongest adjusted associations identified in the report involved the anatomical location of pain rather than participants’ sex or stage of medical training. Medical students may face repeated upper-body postural stress because their academic work itself involves long periods spent reading, writing and using screens. The release noted that recreational gaming on top of those demands could add to the cumulative physical load on the neck, shoulders and back.

It identified medical students as a particularly relevant population for examining this issue, while also stressing that the findings should not be generalized indiscriminately. The sample included only medical students at Jordanian universities, and the investigators identified the restricted population as a limitation. The authors recommended that universities incorporate ergonomics education and digital-health awareness into student wellness activities, encourage breaks during both study and gaming sessions, and provide counselling support for students who use mobile games to cope with academic stress.

They also called for longitudinal research combining objective posture assessment with clinical measurement. Those designs could follow students over time, establish the sequence of gaming behavior and pain, and test whether particular postures or clinical findings explain the cross-sectional associations observed here. The single-survey design, sample size and restriction to medical students mean the results are best understood as evidence of a notable association in the surveyed population, not a universal estimate of the prevalence or consequences of mobile gaming addiction.

Among the study’s clearest findings was the concentration of the association in the neck and elbows, rather than a uniform increase across all measured pain sites. Elbow pain showed the largest difference between the groups in the survey results, while neck pain produced the second independently significant association after adjustment. Upper-back and wrist-or-hand pain were also more frequently reported by students classified as addicted, but the supplied report does not identify those locations as statistically significant independent associations in the adjusted model.

The scale-defined addiction group was also distinguished by greater reported interference with study, hobbies and daily activities and by more healthcare visits for musculoskeletal complaints. Together, these measurements show that the burden reported by addicted students extended beyond the presence of pain. They do not, however, show that pain caused additional gaming, that gaming produced a particular tissue injury or that the same pattern would be found in other populations.

Subject of Research: Associations between mobile gaming addiction and musculoskeletal pain among Jordanian medical students

Article Title: Investigating mobile gaming addiction and musculoskeletal pain: A cross-sectional study among medical students in Jordanian universities

Article References: Investigating mobile gaming addiction and musculoskeletal pain: A cross-sectional study among medical students in Jordanian universities. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: mobile gaming, gaming addiction, musculoskeletal pain, neck pain, elbow pain, medical students, Jordan, cross-sectional study, digital health, student ergonomics, Investigating, mobile