The Effects of Cervical Traction on the Pain, Range of Motion and the Quality of Sleep of the Older Women with Tension Headache

Abstract

Purpose : The purpose of this work was to ascertain the effects of cervical traction on the pain, the range of motion and the quality of sleep of the older women with the tension headache.Method : 25 subjects between ages 66 and 82 who agreed on this experiment and diagnosed with tension headache participated in this study. All subjects were treated with air-pressure cervical traction while 20 minutes a day, 3 times per week, for 4 weeks. The effects of air-pressure cervical traction were evaluated by PSQI(Pittsburgh sleep quality index), a pain last a day, VAS, and four ROMs. In order to investigate the effect of age on the treatment, subjects were divided into two groups, of less and of over than age 75. The measured data were analyzed by using one-way repeated ANOVA and two-way repeated ANOVA.Result : 1) The group of less than age 75 showed the significant improvements in all measurement variables, PSQI, a pain last a day, VAS and four ROMs. 2) The group of over than age 75 showed the significant improvements in all measurement variables excluding the flexion ROM of cervical. 3) No significant differences between two groups were showed in all measurement variables, but the interaction effect between group and period was significant in only VAS. Conclusion :From the results of this study, a cervical traction intervention using an air-pressure cervical traction proved to be effective on the reduction of tension headache and the improvement of the quality of sleep.