Prevalence of Neck Pain and Disability in Medical Students of Sialkot

Abstract

Neck pain is a pervasive musculoskeletal disorder and one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. It ranks as the fourth most typical cause of disability. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of neck pain and disability in medical students of Sialkot. Methods: It was cross-sectional study and simple random sampling technique was used. 465 male/female medical student 18–25-year-old were participated. Subjects with other neck pathologies like cervical stenosis were excluded. Data were collected from three different institutes of Sialkot i.e., University of Sialkot, Sialkot College of Physical Therapy and University of Management and Technology. Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire was used to collect data. Study ran from 20 May to 22 September 2021.Statsitical analysis done through SPSS version 20. Histogram, bar charts used to display data. Ethical approval obtained from institute before conducting research. Results: Results were calculated using Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire (NPQ) percentages. 15.9% had no disability, 58.1% had mild disability, and 19.4% had moderate disability while 6.7% were suffering from severe disability. The overall neck pain prevalence was 58.1% and it caused mild disability in medical students. Conclusions: It is concluded that neck pain is quite common among medical students as more than half of participants were suffering from this issue. Lifting heavy objects being in uncomfortable posture during daily activities and reading for extended hours aggravate the pain. Occasional disturbance of sleep was also noted.