Trial reportBMC complementary medicine and therapies2026
Effects of specific extensor exercise on balance control in patients with neck pain; a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in BMC complementary medicine and therapies, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNeck pain can disrupt the somatosensory system, impairing balance control and neck muscle function. Deep cervical extensor muscles maintain cervical postural alignment and intersegmental stability; however, its effects on balance remain unclear. This study determined the effects of specific deep neck extensor training (SpecExtTx) compared with proprioceptive training (PropTx), balance training (BalanceTx), and control (CG) on balance control, deep cervical muscle cross-sectional area (CSA), pain-related outcomes, and cervical joint position sense (CJPS).
methodsA total of 132 participants with chronic subclinical neck pain were randomly assigned to one of four groups: SpecExtTx, PropTx, BalanceTx, or CG. Outcome measures included the Balance Error Scoring System Thai version (BESS-TH), Timed Up and Go test (TUG), Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Neck Disability Index Thai version (NDI-TH), CSA, and CJPS. Assessments were conducted at baseline, immediately post-intervention (6 weeks intervention), and at 1-month follow-up using two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) for analysis of within-group differences and univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) (adjusted for baseline) for between-group differences.
resultsSpecExtTx group demonstrated less improvement, showing significantly smaller BESS-TH score reductions than the BalanceTx group at both time points (p = 0.02–0.03, mean difference (MDs) = 3.16 to 3.43, effect size (ES) = 0.70 to 0.73. TUG had no improvement between groups at both time points. SpecExtTx demonstrated significantly improved VAS score than the other three groups at post-intervention (p < 0.05; MDs = -1.10 to -0.87, ES = -0.88 to -0.69) and greater CG at follow-up (p < 0.05; MD = -1.06; ES = -0.75). SpecExtTx group had more improvement in the NDI-TH scores than the BalanceTx group in post-treatment (p = 0.04, MD = -1.96, ES = -0.68). SpecExtTx group had greater CSA increase compared to the other groups at both time points (p < 0.05; MDs = 0.19 to 0.23; ES = 1.41 to 2.19). SpecExtTx group demonstrated significantly better CJPS than the CG in the extension direction at post-treatment (p = 0.02, MDs = -0.73, ES = -0.76.
conclusionsSpecific deep cervical extensor training demonstrated effects on balance similar to balance training; however, it was inferior to BalanceTx effects. Nevertheless, SpecExtTx also improved proprioception and muscle size while reducing pain and disability in neck pain populations.
trial registrationThe trial was also registered in the Thai Clinical Trial registry (TCTR20230831002) and registered on 31 August 2023.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.