Cervical musculoskeletal impairments and pressure pain sensitivity in office workers with headache

Ernst, Markus J.; Sax, Nadine; Meichtry, André; Aegerter, Andrea Martina; Luomajoki, Hannu; Lüdtke, Kerstin; Gallina, Alessio; Falla, Deborah (2023). Cervical musculoskeletal impairments and pressure pain sensitivity in office workers with headache. Musculoskeletal science and practice, 66, p. 102816. Elsevier 10.1016/j.msksp.2023.102816

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Background
Office workers are specifically vulnerable to headache conditions. Neck pain is reported by almost 80% of patients with headaches. Associations between currently recommended tests to examine cervical musculoskeletal impairments, pressure pain sensitivity and self-reported variables in headache, are unknown. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether cervical musculoskeletal impairments and pressure pain sensitivity are associated with self-reported headache variables in office workers.

Methods
This study reports a cross-sectional analysis using baseline data of a randomized controlled trial. Office workers with headache were included in this analysis. Multivariate associations, controlled for age, sex and neck pain, between cervical musculoskeletal variables (strength, endurance, range of motion, movement control) and pressure pain threshold (PPT) over the neck and self-reported headache variables, such as frequency, intensity, and the Headache-Impact-Test-6, were examined.
Results

Eighty-eight office workers with a 4-week headache frequency of 4.8 (±5.1) days, a moderate average headache intensity (4.5 ± 2.1 on the NRS), and “some impact” (mean score: 53.7 ± 7.9) on the headache-impact-test-6, were included. Range of motion and PPT tested over the upper cervical spine were found to be most consistently associated with any headache variable. An adjusted R2 of 0.26 was found to explain headache intensity and the score on the Headache-Impact-Test-6 by several cervical musculoskeletal and PPT variables.

Discussion
Cervical musculoskeletal impairments can explain, irrespective of coexisting neck pain, only little variability of the presence of headache in office workers. Neck pain is likely a symptom of the headache condition, and not a separate entity.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Work and Organisational Psychology

UniBE Contributor:

Aegerter, Andrea Martina

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

2468-7812

Publisher:

Elsevier

Funders:

[42] Schweizerischer Nationalfonds ; [UNSPECIFIED] physioswiss ; [UNSPECIFIED] Physiotherapie-Wissenschaften

Language:

English

Submitter:

Christine Soltermann

Date Deposited:

18 Jan 2024 08:49

Last Modified:

30 Jun 2024 02:19

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.msksp.2023.102816

PubMed ID:

37394322

Additional Information:

Andrea Martina Aegerter, Tobias Egli, Achim Elfering, Michelle Aline Gisler, Markus Melloh, Salome Richard, Lukas Staub, Thomas Zweig are members of the NEXpro collaboration group.

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Headache Cervical Strength Range of motion Pressure pain threshold Endurance Movement control

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/191726

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/191726

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