The effects of neck, core, and combined stabilization practices on pain, disability, and improvement of the neck range of motion in elderly with chronic non-specific neck pain

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Chronic non-specific neck pain is the most prevalent neck pain with notable impacts on the quality of life in the elderly. OBJECTIVE: The impacts of the neck, core, and combined stabilization practices on pain, disability, and improvement of the neck range of motion in the elderly with chronic non-specific neck pain were examined. METHOD: A quasi-experimental (open label) study was carried out through a cluster sampling in two phases in Tehran-Iran in 2017. Totally, 102 patients were randomly allocated to three groups of specific neck stabilization, specific core stabilization, and combined practices through envelope method. The intervention took 12 weeks. To measure the severity of pain and neck disability, the visual analog scale (VAS), neck disability index (NDI), and neck pain and disability scale (NPDS) was used. A goniometer was used to measure the range of the motion. To examine data, used SPSS (v.20). RESULT: The results, confirmed a significant decrease in pain over the time in the three therapeutic groups (p = 0.000). In addition, there was a significant difference between neck, core, and combined stabilization groups. Moreover, there was a significant increase in the angle of motion in all treatment groups with different treatment duration (P = 0.000). The highest increase in the angle of motion was after 12 weeks of practice in right lateral flexion (RLF) (p = 0.000). CONCLUSION: Twelve sessions of the neck, core, and combined stabilization practices can alleviate the pain and improve the strength in the elderly with chronic non-specific neck pain. In addition, compared to two other methods, the combined method was a more efficient way to improve the range of motion in patients.