The effectiveness of an aerobic exercise training on patients with neck pain during a short- and long-term follow-up: a prospective double-blind randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effect of adding aerobic exercise (AE) to neck-specific exercise treatment for patients with neck pain (NP) to reduce pain and disability. Design: A prospective multicentre randomized controlled trial. Setting: Physiotherapy outpatient clinics. Subjects: Patients with nonspecific NP. Intervention: Patients with NP were randomly assigned to six weeks of neck-specific exercise with and without the addition of AE. Measures: Patients were classified as having a successful or non-successful outcome according to the Global Rating of Change (GROC). Outcome measures included Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Neck Disability Index (NDI), Fear Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ) and cervicogenic headache. Assessments were performed at six-week, and three- and six-month follow-ups. Results: A total of 139 participants (mean age: 54.6 ± 10.5 years) were recruited ( n = 69 AE, n = 70 control). According to GROC, 77.4% of the AE group reported a successful outcome at six months vs. 40% in the control group ( P < 0.001). There was a significant reduction in VAS from baseline to six months in the AE vs. control group 6.73 (±1.69) to 1.89 (±1.37) vs. 6.65 (±1.67) to 3.32 (±1.82), respectively ( P < 0.001). Significant improvements were also obtained for NDI and FABQ from baseline to six weeks in the AE group: NDI from 16.10 (±4.53) to 7.78 (±4.78) vs. 17.01 (±4.84) to 11.09 (±5.64) in the control group ( P = 0.003); FABQ from 33.53 (±9.31) to 20.94 (±841) in the AE vs. 33.45 (±10.20) to 26.83 (±10.79) in the control group ( P < 0.001). The AE group also demonstrated significant reduction in cervicogenic headache from baseline to six months ( P = 0.003). Conclusion: Adding AE to long-term neck-specific exercises is an effective treatment for reducing NP and headache in patients with NP.

Association between Psychological Stress and Neck Pain among College Students during the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 Pandemic: A Questionnaire-Based Cross-Sectional Study

“…One surprising result of the current study is that engagement in physical activity during the lockdown was not associated with NP-related disability. This finding is inconsistent with those of previous studies, in which physical activity reduced NP [44,45] and served as a protective factor against NP [11]. However, most risk factors for NP were psychosocial rather than physical characteristics [11].…”

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown on Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Neck Pain Among College Students: a Cross-sectional Study

“…One surprising result of the current study is that leisure time physical activity was not found to be associated with NP-related disability. This nding is inconsistent with previous studies, which found that physical activity reduced NP [34,35] and served as a protective factor against NP [6]. However, most risk factors found for neck pain were related to psychosocial characteristics rather than to physical characteristics [6].…”

Physiotherapy student clinical placements in Australian private practice: Patient‐reported outcomes with supervised student care

“…The 15‐point GRoC has significant correlation with changes in domains of disability and pain including the QuickDASH questionnaire ( r = 0.45) and Numeric Pain Rating Scale ( r = 0.26) (Mintken et al., 2009). A minimal GRoC of 5 units on the 15‐point scale is considered a clinically meaningful improvement or deterioration (Daher et al., 2020). Previous research has reported acceptable test–retest reliability (ICC ≥ 0.70) for GRoC scales (Bobos et al., 2019; Costa et al., 2008; Kamper et al., 2010; Ngo et al., 2010).…”