Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Functional postural exercises (FPE) and Cranio-cervical flexion exercises (CCFE) on pain (VAS), neck disability index (NDI), muscular endurance, and Cervical spine joint range of motion (ROM) in patients with non-specific mechanical neck pain.
Methods: The subjects of this study were patients with non-specific mechanical neck pain, and a total of 30 subjects were included in the study. Fifteen subjects were randomly assigned to the functional postural exercise group (FPE) and the cranio-cervical flexion exercise group (CCFE), and the exercise was performed three times a week for 4 weeks, including the pre- and post-intervention evaluation period. VAS, NDI, Endurance, and ROM were measured before and after intervention.
Results: As a result of comparing VAS, the VAS score decreased significantly after intervention in both the FPE and CCFE groups (p<.05). There was no significant difference in the comparison between the two groups, but higher improvement was shown in the FPE group. As a result of comparing NDI, after intervention, NDI decreased significantly in both groups (p < .05). However, there was no difference in NDI between groups. As a result of comparing endurance, both FPE and CCFE groups showed a significant increase in muscular endurance after intervention (p <.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups, but higher improvement was shown in the FPE group. As a result of comparing ROM, flexion, extension, right flexion, left flexion, right rotation, and left rotation ROM increased significantly after intervention in the FPE and CCFE groups (p <.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups, but higher improvement was shown in the FPE group.
Conclusion: We propose clinical use of FPE because it can be applied as an effective clinical approach as a more easily viable and immediately correctable cervical stabilization exercise in modern people who sit for a long time to improve pain, neck disability index, muscular endurance, and cervical range of motion in NMNP patients.