EFFECTS OF NECK STABILIZATION AND ISOMETRIC NECK EXERCISES ON NON-SPECIFIC CHRONIC NECK PAIN: A PILOT STUDY

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of neck stabilization and isometric neck exercises on pain-related disability, sleep disturbance, psychological status and cardiopulmonary parameters in patients with non-specific chronic neck pain (NSCNP). Methodology: This study was done within a period of May-October, 2019. 14 patients with NSCNP were involved in this research. The patients were enrolled into the research from two post secondary health facilities in Lagos state and distributed into groups A, B and C with the aid of random numbers generated by the computer: Group A received Neck stabilization exercises only, Group B received Neck stabilization and isometric neck exercises, Group C received Isometric neck exercises only. Subjects were evaluated for pain-related disability, sleep disturbance, psychological status (anxiety and depression), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), mean arterial pressure (MAP), rate pressure product (RPP), forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) and perceived exertion rate (RPE) before intervention and end of 4th week. Results: This research showed that neck stabilization combined with isometric exercise improved pain-related disability (p=0.04), anxiety (p=0.04) and depression (p=0.04) after 4 weeks intervention. Some pulmonary parameters, FVC (p=0.05, p=0.02), FEV1 (p=0.02, p=0.01) improved significantly post intervention in both neck stabilization exercise alone and neck stabilization combined with isometric neck exercise groups. While PEFR (p=0.02, p=0.01) improved significantly in both neck stabilization combined with isometric neck exercises and isometric neck exercise group alone post intervention. Conclusion: This study draws the conclusion that neck stabilization exercise only and neck stabilization combined with isometric exercise will better improve pain-related disability, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance and some selected pulmonary parameters (FVC, FEV1, PEFR) in patients with NSCNP. Keywords: Exercise, chronic neck pain, pilot, study