Preventive Care of Chronic Cervical Pain and Disabilities

Preventive Care of Chronic Cervical Pain and Disabilities; Comparison of Spinal Manipulative Therapy and Individualized Home Exercise Programs

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 Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Neck Pain
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: spinal manipulation; Other: Spinal manipulation + exercises

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 117
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Quebec
    • Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada, G9A 1R2
      • Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 60 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

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.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: 1
Active Comparator: 2; spinal manipulation	Other: spinal manipulation; Monthly cervical spinal manipulation
Experimental: 3; Spinal manipulation + exercises	Other: Spinal manipulation + exercises; Monthly cervical spine manipulation and daily home exercises

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Neck Pain	Visual analog pain scale (score 0-10 cm; 0 being no neck pain and 10 extreme neck pain)	Up to 10 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Fear Avoidance Belief, Quality of Life, Range of Motion	One year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
• Collaborators: Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research (FCER)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Martin Descarreaux, PhD, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Martel J, Dugas C, Dubois JD, Descarreaux M. A randomised controlled trial of preventive spinal manipulation with and without a home exercise program for patients with chronic neck pain. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2011 Feb 8;12:41. doi: 10.1186/1471-2474-12-41.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: October 1, 2007
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2008
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2008

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 30, 2007
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 3, 2007
• First Posted (Estimate): December 4, 2007

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): September 28, 2012
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 13, 2012
• Last Verified: September 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Neck Pain
• Other Study ID Numbers: Chronic cervical pain UQTR; FCER Grant #06-03-02