Effect of Combined Neck Strength Exerciser Plus Physiotherapy to Treatment Chronic Neck Pain

Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cervicalgia

Treatments: Device: Neck Strength Exerciser (NSE); Other: Physical therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01774734

20110605R

Details and patient eligibility

About

1. Chronic neck pain is common in general population.

   • High health care source expenditure
   • Multiple therapeutic approaches available with limited evidence
   • Previous studies showed active strengthening exercise improved pain (VAS) and functional performance (NDI)
   • Muscle strengthening exercise with biofeedback technique showed more long-lasting effect in patients with chronic neck pain

2. The investigators hypothesize that daily use of the neck strength exerciser (NSE), combined biofeedback technique with muscle strengthening exercise posture adjustment, in addition to traditional physiotherapy, could have more long-lasting and prominent effect on pain and functional improvement in patients with chronic neck pain.

Full description

1. A randomized single-blinded trial to compare the effect of combined home-based NSE with physiotherapy could be more effective to treat people with chronic neck pain

The NSE is a simple equipment that is easy to learn and safe to apply as home-based program The NSE will apply to the patients in the NSE group for 6 weeks, and we will compare the target variables to see if it brings better improvement by correction of maladaptive habitual posture and daily postural muscle exercise

Enrollment: 80 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 20+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Adult, ≧20 yr.
• Constantly or frequently occurring neck pain for more than 3 months in the last 1 year.
• Motivated and willing to participate in rehabilitation therapy
• Sign written informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Neck or shoulder surgery.
• Clinical evidence of cervical radiculopathy or myelopathy.
• History of disk disease, degenerative joint disease, fracture, or dislocation in the cervical vertebrae.
• Severe pathological change in the cervical vertebrae, including inflammatory rheumatic disease and tumor.
• History of poor diet, hypothyroidism, or other severe systemic disorders.
• Cognitive deficit and severe psychiatric illness.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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80 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

neck strength exerciser (NSE) group

Experimental group

Description:

Traditional physiotherapy 30 minutes per session for three times weekly + home-based NSE training 20 minutes daily

Treatment:

Other: Physical therapy

Device: Neck Strength Exerciser (NSE)

Physical therapy group

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Traditional physiotherapy 30 minutes per session for three times weekly + home-based general neck exercise 20 minutes daily

Treatment:

Other: Physical therapy