Effectiveness of stretching exercise program among nurses with neck pain: Palestinian perspective

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the effect of muscle stretching exercise on neck pain and disability among nurses in Palestine. A quasi-experimental, pre-post design with a convenience sample of 90 nurses with moderate-to-severe neck pain from two hospitals in Palestine participated in the study. The hospitals were randomly selected to be an experimental and the other one as a control group. The experimental group received the instruction to perform structured neck and around shoulder stretching exercises two sessions/day for 5 days/week for 1 month. The control group was told to maintain their current level of physical activity. Results showed that the magnitude of improvement in neck pain and disability was greater in the experimental group than in the control group (t(88) = 8.5, P = 0.001).

Keywords: Neck; exercise program; neck pain; nurses; stretching.