The first laptop was produced in 1981 but it took more than a decade of development for the designs to approach current (2016) levels of portability and capacity, and hence uptake. Apple produced the first smartphone (the iPhone) in 2007 and the first tablet (the iPad) in 2010. In 2015 there were 4.43 billion mobile phone (cellphone) users in the world, of which 2.6 billion had smartphones. In the US, 45% owned a tablet computer in 2014 and 92% owned a mobile phone; for younger adults aged 18–29, only 2% didn't own a mobile phone and 50% had tablets. A large Finnish cross-sectional study on school-age adolescents published in 2012 concluded that more than two hours a day spent on computers was associated with a moderate/severe increase in musculoskeletal pain. In the following year, the average UK 18–24 year-old spent 8.83 hours a day in front of a PC, laptop or tablet. Neck pain per se has been a large problem for a long time, and surveyed repeatedly. A composite review of studies with good methodology by Fejer et al. published in 2006 found that point prevalence (in pain right now) of neck pain in the adult (15–75 years) population ranged from 5.9% to 22.2%, with one study of the elderly (65+ years) finding 38.7% were in pain when surveyed. Generally, more urban populations had more neck pain, e.g. 22.2% of a large 1998 Canadian study had neck pain when surveyed. Based on these surveys of neck pain prevalence, and adding to them the prevalence of thoracic pain and cervicogenic headache, it is reasonable to estimate that around one adult in six (15%) probably has pain in any, some or all of those areas right now. However the published epidemiological papers draw on raw data from surveys done at least 10 years ago, and there are indications that the numbers have been rising dramatically since then – as rapidly as the adoption of laptops, tablets and smartphones. This is reflected in the recent rise in the number of popular articles, news items and media discussions about the problem.
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