More and more young people suffer from osteoarthritis in their hands

Smartphone generation: thumb under pressure: IKK Südwest: More and more young insured people suffer from osteoarthritis in their hands

Arthrosis comes in old age, this thesis has been consistent so far. Recent figures from the IKK Südwest show that more and more younger people are affected by arthrosis in the fingers and wrists. The diagnosis of 21 to 30-year-olds at the IKK has increased fivefold within four years. One cause can be excessive smartphone use. The ligaments and tendons in the hand are extremely stressed and provide unstable joints.

Swipe, push, click, tap - the typical hand gestures of the "generation Smartphone" dominate even small children usually perfect. In adulthood, the strenuous combination of motion often leads early to joint disease in the hand, primarily in the thumb.

Within four years, the total number of IKK-Südwest insured persons aged between 16 and 65 years doubled with the diagnosis "Osteoarthritis in hand" (2013 to 2017). A look at the age groups shows that especially the 21 to 30 year olds are affected. Here, the number experts of the IKK Südwest have ascertained an increase of five times. The 31- to 45-year-olds are also suffering more often than four years ago: The corresponding diagnoses increased in this age group by two and a half times.

A precise overview of numbers can be found in the press release in the appendix. Although the number of cases seems trivial at first glance, the rates of increase already indicate a problem that will pick up in the coming years.

"Tennis arm and mouse hand were yesterday. Today, it's the mobile phone thumb, "confirms Frank Laubscher, project manager for health promotion at IKK Südwest. A cramped hand posture, combined with filigree wiping-tip technique, in which one finger rotates freely and the rest must remain stable, demands some ligaments and tendons. They loosen up and thus lose the joints to hold. "Many people today also work mobile and are not only privately accessible with the smartphone. The useful life increases - and with it the burden, "says Laubscher. The fact that the number of cases has increased so significantly within four years is an alarm sign for him. "This development should be thought-provoking."

And to get used to: Anyone who feels a slight pull from time to time in his thumb should spare the over-strained smartphone hand and reach for the telephone more often.