Sensorimotor tests, such as movement control and laterality judgment accuracy, in persons with recurrent neck pain and controls : a case-control study

Assessing sensorimotor abilities, such as movement control, becomes increasingly important for the management of patients with neck pain because of the potential contribution to the development of chronic neck pain. Our aim was to evaluate whether sensorimotor tests could discriminate between persons with neck pain and persons without neck pain and to assess correlations among the assessments. A matched case-control study with 30 persons with recurrent neck pain and 30 controls was conducted. We tested two-point discrimination (TPD), joint position error (JPE), muscle activation with the craniocervical flexion test (CCFT), laterality judgment accuracy and movement control (MC). We administered the Fear Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ), the Neck Disability Index (NDI) and the painDetect questionnaire. According to the areas under the curve (AUC), tests for the JPE (0.69), CCFT (0.73), MC (0.83) and laterality judgment accuracy (0.68) were able to discriminate between persons with and without neck pain. Among the five tests, laterality judgment accuracy exhibited moderate to large correlations with the JPE and MC, and moderate correlations were observed between the TPD and CCFT (r between -0.4 and -0.5). We recommend the assessment of various aspects of sensorimotor ability and of central representation of the body schema, even in patients with mild neck pain. For clinical practice, we recommend the craniocervical flexion test, testing of laterality judgment accuracy and three movement control tests (cervico-thoracic extension, protraction–retraction of the head and quadruped cervical rotation)