Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28815015›Full record

ArticleChiropractic & manual therapies2017

Exploring the definition of «acute» neck pain: a prospective cohort observational study comparing the outcomes of chiropractic patients with 0-2 weeks, 2-4 weeks and 4-12 weeks of symptoms.

Luana Nyirö, Cynthia K Peterson, B Kim Humphreys

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Article in Chiropractic & manual therapies, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

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0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Luana NyiröDepartment of Chiropractic Medicine, Orthopaedic University Hospital Balgrist, Forchstrasse 340, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland.
Cynthia K PetersonDepartment of Chiropractic Medicine, Orthopaedic University Hospital Balgrist, Forchstrasse 340, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland.
B Kim HumphreysDepartment of Chiropractic Medicine, Orthopaedic University Hospital Balgrist, Forchstrasse 340, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundNeck pain is a common complaint in chiropractic patients. Amongst other baseline variables, numerous studies identify duration of symptoms as a strong predictor of outcome in neck pain patients. The usual time frame used for 'acute' onset of pain is between 0 and 4 weeks. However, the appropriateness of this time frame has been challenged for chiropractic low back pain patients. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare outcomes in neck pain patients with 0-2 vs 2-4 and 4-12 weeks of symptoms undergoing chiropractic treatment.

methodsThis is a prospective cohort observational study with 1 year follow-up including 495 patients whose data was collected between October 2009 and March 2015. Patients were divided into high-acute (0-2 weeks), mid-acute (2-4 weeks) and subacute (4-12 weeks) corresponding to duration of their symptoms at initial treatment. Patients completed the numerical pain rating scale (NRS) and Bournemouth questionnaire for neck pain (BQN) at baseline. At follow-up time points of 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year the NRS and BQN were completed along with the Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC) scale. The PGIC responses were dichotomized into 'improved' and 'not improved' patients and compared between the 3 subgroups. The Chi-square test was used to compare improved patients between the 3 subgroups and the unpaired Student's t-test was used for the NRS and BQN change scores.

resultsThe proportion of patients 'improved' was only significantly higher for patients with symptoms of 0-2 weeks compared to 2-4 weeks at the 1 week outcome time point (

conclusionsThe time period of 0-4 weeks of symptoms as the definition of "acute" neck pain should be maintained. Independent of the exact duration of symptoms, medium-term and long-term outcome is favourable for acute as well as subacute neck pain patients.

trial registrationNot applicable for prospective cohort studies. Ethics approval prior to study EK 19/2009.

Indexed as

AcuteChiropractic, spinal manipulative therapyNeck pain mechanicalTreatment outcome

Identifiers

PMID28815015
PMCPMC5558701

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.