Cervical Flexor Endurance, ROM, and Disability in Subjects with Neck Pain: A Correlative Study

Several tests have been suggested to assess the isometric endurance of the cervical flexor muscles (NFME). This study proposes to determine whether neck flexors endurance is related to disability, Cervical flexion range of motion (CFROM) in subjects with neck pain (NP).

Thirty subjects (18 women, 12 men, mean ± SD age: 34 ± 16 years) complaining of neck pain filled out the Neck Pain and Disability Scale (NPDS) and CFROM was measured using Tape Measurement method. They also completed the timed isometric endurance tests for the cervical flexors muscles.

On average NFME test was 43.9 ± 19.3 seconds, NPDS score was 43.05 ± 10.6 and cervical flexion ROM was 14.76 ± 1.37 cm. No significant correlation was found between the results of NDPS and a positive relationship was also found between CFROM and NFME. When compared with acute/sub acute group, the score of NPDS was significantly higher (p-0.01) in chronic group but there was no significant difference in NFME(p-0.50) and CFROM (p-0.84) between the groups.

The study concluded that NFME decreases in neck pain patients more in chronic than Acute/subacute cases. No significant correlation was found between NFME and NPDS scores. Although a positive but insignificant correlation was found between NFME and CFROM.