Overview of study characteristics of the meta-analysis (two group pretest posttest design)
Study | Year | Patients | Experimental group | Control group | Outcomes | Duration/total treatment |
Study |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Islam et al. [33] | 2013 | Headache | DNF + conventional exercise | Conventional exercise (moist heat, manual traction, passive stretching) | VAS, HDI | 3 weeks/9/15 minutes | 7 |
Park et al. [37] | 2017 | Headache | DNF + cervical stretching | Cervical stretching | CVA | 3 weeks/NA/NA | 7 |
Park and Yoon [35] | 2019 | Headache | DNF | Cervical stretching | SCM activation, Neck X-ray angle | 4 weeks/NA/NA | 7 |
Nambi et al. [34] | 2014 | Headache | DNF | Mobilization exercise | VAS, HDI | 4 weeks/40/66 minutes | 6 |
Park et al. [36] | 2019 | Headache | DNF + transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) | DNF | NDI, SCM activation | 4 weeks/NA/NA | 7 |
Kang and Yang [31] | 2019 | FHP | Modified chin tuck exercise | DNF | CVA, strength, endurance | 6 weeks/24/960 minutes | 7 |
Kim et al. [32] | 2017 | FHP | shoulder stabilization exercise | DNF | CVA, Neck X-ray angle, NDI | 8 weeks/24/222 minutes | 9 |
Kim and Kwag [29] | 2016 | Neck pain | DNF | General strengthening exercise | CROM, NDK, NRS, Neck X-ray angle | 4 weeks/12/30 minutes | 4 |
Gallego Izquierdo et al. |
2016 | Neck pain | Cervical proprioception training | DNF | NDI | 8 weeks/112/2,240 minutes | 13 |
Chung et al. [27] | 2012 | Neck pain | DNF | Cervical proprioception training | NDI, LCM CSA, Neck X-ray angle | 8 weeks/24/720 minutes | 8 |
Chung and Jeong [26] | 2018 | Neck pain | DNF | Neck isometric exercise | NDI, Neck X-ray angle, VAS, endurance, CROM | 8 weeks/24/792 minutes | 13 |
Javanshir et al. [30] | 2015 | Neck pain | DNF | Cervical flexion exercise | NRS, NDI, SCM thickness, LCM CSA | 10 weeks/30/900 minutes | 12 |
Ghaderi et al. [25] | 2017 | Neck pain | DNF | Progressive resistive exercise | VAS, NDI, endurance | 10 weeks/30/1,350 minutes | 8 |
Kim [24] | 2013 | Neck pain | DNF | No exercise | NDI | 6 weeks/18/43.5 minutes | 8 |
Karthi et al. [20] | 2019 | Neck pain | DNF | Chin tuck exercise | NRS, CROM, NDI | 2 weeks/NA/NA | 6 |
Mohamed et al. [19] | 2019 | Neck pain | DNF | Thermal agent + Therapeutic ultrasound | NDI, VAS, endurance | 4 weeks/12/108 minutes | 8 |
O’Leary et al. [5] | 2012 | Neck pain | DNF | Isometric craniocervical flexor strength and endurance | CROM, strength, endurance, NDI, VAS | 10 weeks/140/233 minutes | 11 |
Lee [21] | 2020 | Neck pain | DNF | SNAGs (sustained natural apophyseal glides) | NDI | 4 weeks/8/160 minutes | 9 |
Kim and Lee [39] | 2016 | Headache + Neck pain | DNF | Stretching group | CVA, HDI | 4 weeks/NA/NA | 9 |
Cho et al. [13] | 2019 | FHP + neck pain | DNF | Upper cervical and upper thoracic spine mobilization | CVA, NRS | 4 weeks/10/100 minutes | 11 |
Deepa et al. [22] | 2014 | Neck pain | DNF + Maitland thoracic mobilisation | DNF | CROM, NDI, NRS | 4 weeks/NA/NA | 7 |
DNF, deep neck flexion; FHP, forward head posture; CROM, cervical range of motion; NDI, neck disability index; NRS, numeric rating scale; CVA, craniovertebral angle; HDI, headache disability index; VAS, visual analog scale; LCM, longus colli muscle; CSA, cross sectional area; NA, not applicable.