A comparative study of posture alteration and stretching program to reduce neck pain in teachers

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Teaching is the world’s most serviceable profession all over the world. Teachers required an appropriate mixture of mental, physical, technical and tactical ability. Prolong extension of their neck during teaching may cause increase load in muscles which may lead to disturbances in their daily activities. Hence, the aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of posture alteration and posture alteration with stretching to reduce neck pain in teachers. To compare the effectiveness of posture alteration and posture alteration with stretching to reduce neck pain in teachers.

Materials and Methods: Once the study had been approved by institutional review board, 30 volunteers were selected based on inclusion criteria. It was a comparative study and was carried out for duration of 4 weeks, in which the individuals were randomly selected and divided into two groups (each of 10 individuals). Group A was treated with posture alteration and Group B was treated with posture alteration along with stretching. Goniometry and vas were used as preand post- test to evaluate the effectiveness of treatments that were given to the individuals.

Results: On comparing the mean values of goniometry and visual analog scale (vas) by using pre and post method to the treatment, the group B has shown highly significant improvement in the pain reduction and significant improvement of functional activities in both the groups.

Conclusion: Hence, the results suggest that stretching training was more advantageous for reducing pain and tenderness. Stretching training program incorporates specific exercises according to the needs of individual’s performance as a part of the overall training program.

Keywords: Goniometry; visual analog scale; posture alteration; stretches.