Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to determine the six month prevalence of neck pain in patients who referred to physiotherapy clinics in greater Tehran.
Type of study: A prospective Cohort study (Causes and prevalence of the disease) was investigated through interrogation and examination of the patients who referred to the physiotherapy over a six month period.
Material and Methods: Greater Tehran was divided into five regions and 1.2 physiotherapy clinics were randomly selected in each region. The subjects were selected from a population of all the subjects who referred to those.
physiotherapy clinics (a total of 1272 patients). All the subjects complaining from neck pain entered this study (136 subjects).
Every subjects filled a questionare that included some general information and the history of his/her neck pain. The results of physical examination, number of physiotherapy sessions, and rate of improvement were also recorded. The time period for this study was I full year. A examination bed a goniometer, and a measuring tape were used to collect the data for each subject.
Results: The prevalence of neck pain in patients in different clinics was 9-12.4% and averaged 10.7% in all clinics the rate was 11.9% for women and 10.2% for men there was no significant difference in prevalence between the five regions.
No significant difference was observed between the vertebral and muscular Causative factors.
No one of the subjects suffered from the neck pain caused by spinal cord factors. Spondylosis and myofascial were more prevalent among vertebral and muscular factors respectively.
Rate of improvement after physiotherapy was in the following order.
-42.4% recovered 70%-100%
-40.8% recovered 50%-70%
-16.8% had a recovery less than 50%
Rate of improvement was directly correlated to the number of treatment sessions.