Mobile phone use behaviors and postures on public transportation systems
Journal
PLoS ONE
Journal Volume
11
Journal Issue
2
Pages
e0148419
Date Issued
2016
Author(s)
Abstract
Mobile phones are common in our daily life, but the users' preferences for postures or screen operating styles have not been studied. This was a cross-sectional and observational study. We randomly sampled passengers who used mobile phones on the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system in metropolitan Taipei. A checklist was used to observe their body postures and screen operating styles while sitting or standing. As a result, 1,230 subjects from 400 trips were observed. Overall, of all the passengers who were sitting, 41% of them were using mobile phones. The majority of the tasks involved browsing (84%) with their phones in a portrait orientation (93%). Different-hand holding/operating was the most commonly used operating style while sitting (46%) and same-hand holding/operating was the most common while standing (46%). The distribution of screen operating styles was significantly different for those sitting than for those standing and for different genders and age groups. The most frequently observed postures while sitting were having one's trunk against a backrest, feet on the floor and with or without an arm supported (58%). As for the users who were standing, the both- and different-hands groups had a high proportion of arms unsupported, feet on the floor and either their trunk supported or not. In contrast, the same-hand group tended to have their trunk unsupported, were holding a pole or handstrap and had both feet on floor. Further studies are warranted to characterize the ergonomic exposure of these commonly used postures and operating styles, and our results will help guide the selection of experimental conditions for laboratory settings. © 2016 Liang, Hwang. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Other Subjects
adult; Article; behavior; body posture; checklist; cross-sectional study; female; human; human experiment; male; mobile phone; normal human; observational study; sitting; standing; Taiwan; task performance; traffic and transport; body position; middle aged; physiology; young adult; Adult; Behavior; Cell Phones; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Posture; Transportation; Young Adult
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Type
journal article