COMPARE THE EFFECTS OF STRENGTHENING EXERCISES WITH AND WITHOUT SOFT TISSUE MOBILIZATION FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF TENSION NECK SYNDROME IN FEMALES: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

Abstract

Background: Tension neck syndrome (TNS) is a prevalent condition worldwide. Soft tissue mobilization and strengthening exercises are used in physiotherapeutic rehabilitation of the musculoskeletal disorders. Objective: To compare the effects of strengthening exercises with and without soft tissue mobilization (STM) for pain and disability reduction in females with TNS. Methods: A single-blinded, parallel-group randomized controlled trial was conducted at the National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, Pakistan, from April to July 2016. A total of n=30 females, aged 30-70 years, were recruited through non-probability convenient sampling technique and randomly allocated to the experimental and control group. The experimental group received STM and neck isometric strengthening exercises, whereas the control group received neck isometric strengthening exercises only. The Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) was used to assess the pain intensity, while Neck Disability Index (NDI) was used for the neck-related disability. The data was collected at the baseline, after the 4^th session and after the 8^th session. The repeated measure analysis of variance (RM ANOVA) was used to analyse within the group changes, while the independent t-test was used to analyse the differences between the groups. The data was analysed by using SPSS version 21.Results: The mean age of the study participants was 47.9 ± 8.95 years. Within groups’ changes showed that pain intensity, individual items of NDI and its total score showed significant improvement in both the groups from the baseline to the 8^th session (p £ 0.05). After the 8^th session, the experimental group showed more significant reduction (p £ 0.05) in pain intensity and neck disability as compared to the control group. Conclusions: Soft tissue mobilization when combined with neck isometric strengthening exercises was more effective than exercises alone for reducing the pain intensity and disability in females with tension neck syndrome.

Keywords: Management, neck pain, physical therapy, soft tissue mobilization, strength training