Effects of exercise therapy on pain and disability in patients with non-specific neck pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses have only focused on patients with chronic non-specific neck pain (NNP), analyzing exercise therapy (ET) only as therapeutic exercise. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively review the effects of ET through a meta-analysis comprising a wide range of ETs that are not limited to therapeutic exercise.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effects of ET on pain and disability in patients with NNP.

Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Method: The studies selected for this study were based on the PICO-SD tool as follows: P (patient)-acute, subacute, and chronic NNP patents, I (intervention)-ET, C (comparison)-control and other therapy groups, O (outcome)-pain and disability, and SD (study design)-randomized controlled trial.

Results: Twenty-one studies were included. The effects of ET on pain and disability in patients with chronic NNP were significantly different (pain: SMD -1.47, 95% CI: -1.89 to -1.06, I: 94%; disability: SMD -1.79, 95% CI: -2.31 to -1.27, I: 94%). The effects of ET on pain (ET vs control: SMD: -1.60, 95% CI: -2.09 to -1.11, I: 94%; ET vs sham therapy: SMD: -8.75, 95% CI: -10.71 to -6.79) and disability (ET vs control: SMD: -2.16, 95% CI: -2.80 to -1.52, I: 94%; ET vs sham therapy: SMD: -1.73, 95% CI: -2.42 to -1.05) in NNP patients were significantly different.

Conclusions: This study verified the efficacy of ET in improving pain and disability in patients with chronic NNP. However, evidence supporting the efficacy of ET in patients with acute and subacute NNP is still lacking.