Neck Pain in Changi General Hospital: An Observational Study

Introduction: The aim of this study is to describe the profile of neck pain patients in the local population and to investigate the efficacy of physiotherapy management of neck pain. Methods: A retrospective study was done with neck pain patients who have attended the Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Clinic at Changi General Hospital from August 2010 to September 2011. The following data was collected from each patient: age, gender, occupation, mechanism of injury, chronicity, posture type, symptom location, physiotherapy management, number of treatment sessions, pain and functional scores pre- and post-therapy. The patients were also categorised according to International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) categories and observed for clinical profiles. Results: Ninety-one records were screened. The majority of patients (79%) were aged between 35–65 years. The condition was slightly more prevalent in males (55%) than females (45%). Seventy per cent of the patients had non-traumatic and 30% traumatic onset. The majority (69%) had chronic neck pain; 25% had sub-acute and 6% acute neck pain. The majority of patients had slouched sitting posture (84%). Almost half of the neck patients (48.9%) had unilateral neck pain; 20.2% had central neck pain, 16% had neck pain with shoulder pain, 12.8% had neck pain with radiating pain and 2.1% had neck pain with headache. The categorisation showed 51.1% reported neck pain with movement co-ordination, 30.9% with mobility deficit, 12.8% with radiating pain and 5.2% with headache. The multi-modal method showed significant improvement on the pain scale (p >0.001) within an average of 4.3 physiotherapy sessions. Conclusion: Neck pain is common in Singapore, affecting the middle-aged population. Many of these cases presented chronic neck pain, with no trauma involved at symptom onset. A slouched sitting posture was observed most commonly amongst patients with neck pain. Our study indicates that the classification system is valid for clinical use. Patients with headache registered a higher pain intensity than those in other categories. The multi-modal approach is effective in the treatment of neck pain