INFLUENCE OF REGULAR PHYSICAL EXERCISE ON CHRONIC NECK PAIN
Keywords:
neck pain, exercise, pain threshold.Abstract
Aims: to study whether regular practice of physical exercise diminishes the baseline level of subjective pain and the pain pressure threshold in patients with chronic neck pain. Material and method: descriptive study on 130 patients in a private physiotherapy clinic (Madrid). Inclusion criteria: an active trigger point in the upper quarter muscles; the patient must have experienced pain for at least three months; age ranging between 18 and 55. We measure the Visual Analogical Scale (VAS), the Pain Pressure Threshold with a manual algometer (PPT), and whether patients exercise on a weekly basis. Outcome: the mean difference in VAS between physically active (6.16 ± 1.320) and inactive (7.00 ± 1.604) patients, before any treatment, was statistically significant (p < 0.05).
The differences in PPT between both groups was also statistically significant (2.258 ± 0.712 kg/cm2 the non-active patients and 2.706 ± 0.834 kg/cm2 the active patients). The difference was bigger on both accounts between women than between men. Conclusion: patients with chronic neck pain who exercised regularly perceived less subjective pain (VAS) and had higher PPT than those who did not exercise at all.
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