Preventive Care of Chronic Cervical Pain and Disabilities

Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières117 enrolled

Overview

The aim of this study is to determine which of tertiary prevention spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) or a home exercise program is the more efficient approach to reduce pain and increase functional capacity, quality of life and general health condition. To do so, 60 participants with chronic cervical pain, will be recruited and divided into 3 groups according to the intervention they will receive: control group, experimental group 1 who will receive preventive chiropractic care in the form of spinal manipulations and experimental group 2 will have to perform an individualized home exercise program on a daily basis. We hypothesize that a group of patient receiving SMT + a home exercise program will present less pain and functional disabilities over a 1 year period. The innovative value of this project is mainly related to the fact that it will generate new and potentially very useful data concerning the clinical significance of preventive chiropractic care. Moreover, such data will be beneficial to our profession as chiropractic makes a step towards prevention, wellness and public health.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Enrollment

117

Conditions

Neck Pain

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 60 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Adults between 18 and 60 years old from the city and the surrounding Trois-Rivières with chronic cervical pain of non-traumatic origin (chronic or recurrent cervical pain that lasted at least 6 months) Exclusion Criteria: Exclusion criteria for the project are: * Surgery to the cervical spine * Neoplasms * Severe osteoarthritis * Ankylosing spondylitis * Hypertension * Referred pain in the cervical area * Central or peripheric nervous system dysfunction * Vascular disease * Treated cardiovascular disease * Inflammatory or infectious disease of the cervical spine * Metabolic or endocrine diseases * Pregnancy * Specific rehabilitation training for the neck or already under manual therapy for neck pain * Patient suffering from dizziness, vertigo or headache suspected to be cervicogenic or of unknown origin will not be involved in the study.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Neck Pain

Visual analog pain scale (score 0-10 cm; 0 being no neck pain and 10 extreme neck pain)

Time frame: Up to 10 months

Secondary Outcomes

Fear Avoidance Belief, Quality of Life, Range of Motion

Time frame: One year