Self-reported ache, pain, or numbness in hip and lower back and use of computers and cell phones amongst Finns aged 18–65

• This work is a cross-sectional study using a survey to 15,000 working-age persons.
• Sufferers of hip and lower back pain very often, often, quite often, or sometimes numbered.
• We compared daily computer users and non-users with persons with symptoms in the hip and lower back.
• Age, gender, job, and computer use can affect other symptoms of those with hip/lower back symptoms.

The aim of our work is to study persons who self-reported aches, pain, or numbness in the hip and lower back very often and their use of computers and cell phones via a questionnaire. The study was carried out as a cross-sectional study by posting a questionnaire to 15,000 working-age persons, and among all respondents (6121), 8.2% of them reported that they very often experienced pain, numbness, and aches in the hip/lower back. Thirty-eight percent of them used a desktop computer at work daily, and 79.0% used cell phones at leisure. As a group, they had more physical and mental symptoms than others. We found also significant differences in the use of different computers at work. In the future, it is important to take into account that persons' physical symptoms in the hip and lower back very often can be associated with other physical or mental symptoms and computer usage.Relevance to industryHip and lower back symptoms are quite common discomforts that affect the productivity and well-being of industrial workers. A large-scale questionnaire offers a good reference for evaluating the prevalence of the hip and lower back symptoms associated with other symptoms and usage of computers and cell phones.