BMJ  2003;327:475 (30 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7413.475

Paper

Effectiveness of dynamic muscle training, relaxation training, or ordinary activity for chronic neck pain: randomised controlled trial

Matti Viljanen, specialist in rehabilitation medicine1, Antti Malmivaara, senior medical officer2, Jukka Uitti, chief physician1, Marjo Rinne, researcher3, Pirjo Palmroos, statistician1, Pekka Laippala, professor4

1 Tampere Regional Institute of Occupational Health, PO Box 486, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland, 2 Finnish Office for Health Care Technology Assessment, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, Helsinki, Finland, 3 Urho Kaleva Kekkonen Institute for Health Promotion Research, Tampere, Finland, 4 School of Public Health, University of Tampere and Research Unit, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland

Correspondence to: M Viljanen matti.viljanen{at}ttl.fi

Objective To determine the effectiveness of dynamic muscle training and relaxation training for chronic neck pain.

Design Randomised controlled trial.

Setting Five occupational healthcare centres, Tampere, Finland.

Participants 393 female office workers (mean age 45 years) with chronic non-specific neck pain randomly assigned to 12 weeks of dynamic muscle training (n = 135) or relaxation training (n = 128), plus one week of reinforcement training six months after baseline; or ordinary activity (control group; n = 130).

Main outcome measure Change in intensity of neck pain at three, six, and 12 months.

Results No significant difference was found in neck pain between the groups at follow up. However, the range of motion for cervical rotation and lateral flexion increased more in the training groups than in the control group.

Conclusions Dynamic muscle training and relaxation training do not lead to better improvements in neck pain compared with ordinary activity.


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