Effects of ElDOA and Post-Facilitation Stretching Technique on Pain and Disability in Patients With Text Neck Syndrome

In this modern era, Text Neck is a new term used to describe neck pain and associated damage caused by continuous flexed posture due to excessive use of smartphones for a long time. The term text neck was first introduced by Dr. Dean L. Fishman, who is US based chiropractor. Text neck can also be described as overuse syndrome caused by repetitive stress on neck due to prolonged flexion. There is coordinated work between cervical spine and surrounding structure such as muscles, ligament, nerves and bones. In addition, any nerve compression at cervical spine leads to radiating pain in neck, shoulder and arm. Previous literature reported use of cell phone is very common in population of 18 to 44 years of age. Seventy nine percent (79%) population have smartphone with them all the time. Technology has become essential part of modern lifestyle. Sustained flexed posture forces the head to exert weight on neck of varying degrees. Weight of neutral head is 10 to 12 pounds and increases 6 times 1 inch forward movement of head. Children are at higher risk because of their large head size. This study will be a Randomized clinical trial with objective to reduce neck pain and disability in patients with text neck syndrome. Two groups will be designed, in one group ElDOA (n=20) and in other group post facilitation technique (n=20) will be applied. Patients will be recruited into two groups by consecutive sampling by non-replacement lottery method with equal no. of chits. Patients will be assessed by Numeric pain rating scale (NPRS), Neck disability index (NDI), smartphone addiction scale before and after treatment. Both groups will receive heating pad as common treatment first after that group A will be treated with ELDOA and group B will be treated with Post-facilitation. Session of 6 weeks with 3 days per week will be conducted. After that post treatment assessment will be done.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Neck Pain
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: ELDOA method; Other: Post-facilitation stretching

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 40
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Pakistan
  • Punjab
    • Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, 54000
      • Safi Hospital Faisalabad

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 35 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• • Neck pain without unilateral UE symptoms

  • Age 18-35 years
  • Subjects using Phone since past 1 year
  • Neck disability index (NDI) score >10 points
  • Participants able to understand and fill the questionnaire in English

Exclusion Criteria:

• • Subjects having any congenital cervical condition

  • Subjects having traumatic cervical condition such as whiplash injury within the past 6 weeks
  • History of spinal tumors, spinal infection, cervical spine fracture, or previous neck surgery
  • Subjects with cervical radiculopathy

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: ELDOA method; Twenty (20) patients will be treated with ELDOA method	Other: ELDOA method; group A will receive
Active Comparator: Post-facilitation stretching; Twenty (20) patients will be treated with Post-facilitation stretching technique.	Other: Post-facilitation stretching; Group B will receive

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS)	will be used for pain measurement. It is a uni-dimensional 11 point scale (0-10) with measure of pain intensity.	6 weeks
Neck disability index (NDI)	) will be used to assess neck disability. It consists of 10 sections and each section carries 5 marks. 0 indicate no activity limitation and 5 indicates complete activity limitation.	6 weeks
Smartphone addiction scale (SAS)	will be used to assess smartphone addiction. It is self-reporting scale consist of 6 factors and 33 items. Score ranges from 33 to 198 and higher the score greater the degree of addiction.	6 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Riphah International University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Muhammad Salman Bashir, PhD, Riphah International University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Lee JI, Song HS. The correlation analysis between hours of smartphone use and neck pain in the Gachon university students. Journal of Acupuncture Research. 2014;31(2):99-109.
• Neupane S, Ali U, Mathew A. Text neck syndrome-systematic review. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research. 2017;3(7):141-8
• Vate-U-Lan P. Text neck epidemic: a growing problem for smart phone users in Thailand. International Journal of the Computer, the Internet and Management. 2015;23(3):551-6.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 30, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 15, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): March 30, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 13, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 13, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): September 17, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 22, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 21, 2022
• Last Verified: April 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Text Neck Syndrome
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Neck Pain
• Other Study ID Numbers: RCE/Lhr/0116 Maryam

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No