Efficacy of Combining Traditional Chinese Manual Therapy (Tuina) and Specific Therapeutic Neck Exercise in Young Adults with Non-Specific Chronic Neck Pain: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

Lin Chen; Qi Zhang; Zheng Huang; Weiwei Da; Shuang Liu; Chunchun Xue; Chao Ding; Deta Chen; Tianyou Fan; Qi Shi; Xiaofeng Li

doi:10.2147/JPR.S424812

Efficacy of Combining Traditional Chinese Manual Therapy (Tuina) and Specific Therapeutic Neck Exercise in Young Adults with Non-Specific Chronic Neck Pain: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

J Pain Res. 2023 Sep 13:16:3119-3131. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S424812. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Lin Chen^#¹, Qi Zhang^#², Zheng Huang^#¹, Weiwei Da¹, Shuang Liu¹, Chunchun Xue¹, Chao Ding¹, Deta Chen¹, Tianyou Fan¹, Qi Shi¹, Xiaofeng Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopedics, Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xuhui District Tianping Street Community Health Center, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: Non-specific chronic neck pain (NSCNP) is an increasingly common musculoskeletal disease and an important issue in the global healthcare system. Some studies have shown that the combination of manual therapy and exercise is effective in treating NSCNP but still with several limitations. Traditional Chinese manual therapy (tuina) is a Chinese manual therapy that consists of soft tissue manipulation and spinal manipulation. This study aims to design a randomized controlled trial to assess the effect of a tuina combined with specific therapeutic neck exercise modified protocol for NSCNP patients.

Patients and methods: This is a study protocol for a randomized, participant-, assessor- and analyst-blinded controlled trial. Eighty-eight eligible NSCNP patients will be randomly allocated into tuina combined with specific therapeutic neck exercise group (TSTE group) and tuina combined with sham therapeutic neck exercise group (TS group) in a ratio of 1:1. All participants will receive 8 treatment sessions applied in 4 weeks and then be followed up for another 12 weeks. Clinical data will be collected at baseline, during treatment phase (at the 2- and 4-week) and at the 8-, 12-, 16-week follow-ups. The primary outcome is the changes in neck pain intensity (visual analogue scale). The secondary outcomes include neck disability (Neck Disability Index), cervical range of motion (ROM), neck muscle endurance, cervical muscle cross-sectional area, cervical curvature and analgesic consumption. Adverse events will be collected and recorded throughout the study.

Conclusion: We will discuss whether our tuina combined with specific therapeutic neck exercise modified protocol is more effective at improving pericervical muscle endurance, ROM, cervical muscle cross-sectional area and cervical curvature than tuina alone, thereby decreases neck pain and disability in individuals with NSCNP more effectively.

Trial registration: Chinese Clinical Trials Registry, ChiCTR2300067903. Registered on 31 January 2023.

Keywords: manual therapy; non-specific neck pain; randomized controlled trial; specific therapeutic exercise.

Grants and funding

The study is partly sponsored by the Future Plan for Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance and Development of Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (WLJH2021ZY-ZYY013), the Training Program for High-caliber Talents of Clinical Research at Affiliated Hospitals of SHUTCM (2023LCRC18), the Medical Research Program of Shanghai Xuhui District (SHXH202224), the Domestic Science and Technology Cooperation Project of Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan (No. 22015830700). The study funder has no role in the study design, data collection, management, analysis, interpretation, or manuscript writing publication.