The Impact of Chronic Neck Pain on Respiratory Functions among Female University Students

Objective: Students with chronic neck pain have several issues that could constitute susceptibility to respiratory dysfunction. So, this current study was conducted to investigate the impact of chronic neck pain on respiratory function among female university students.
Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 60, female University students voluntarily participated, and were divided into two groups: 30 students with chronic idiopathic neck pain (age=21.9±2.2 years, height=160.7±6.5 cm, weight=71.9±8.5 kg, body mass index (BMI)=28±3.6 kg/cm2 ), and 30 healthy students as the control group (age=21.5±2.1 years, height=163.5±6.8 cm, weight=69.5±11 kg, BMI=26.2±5 kg/cm2 ). Both groups were investigated using a Spirometer (One-FlowTM Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) Kit, USA, Granbury). Descriptive statistics and Multivariate analysis of the variance test were both used to compare both groups.
Results: Students with chronic neck pain were found to have statistically significant reductions in Peak Expiratory Flow and the Forced Expiratory Volume in one second (FEV1)/FVC ratio (p-values=0.043 and 0.000, respectively). However, FVC (p-value=0.372) and FEV1 (p-value=0.840) revealed no statistically significant differences between both groups.
Conclusion: Respiratory dysfunction, with chronic neck pain mainly manifests as respiratory weakness and hypocapnia. Studying the hypothesis of neck pain, and its possibility of causing respiratory dysfunction in these subjects gives rise to important clinical implications concerning the assessment and treatment of patients with chronic neck pain.