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  • Evaluation of an exercise and ergonomics intervention for the prevention of neck pain in office workers: exploratory analysis of a cluster randomised trial

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Original research
Evaluation of an exercise and ergonomics intervention for the prevention of neck pain in office workers: exploratory analysis of a cluster randomised trial
  1. Venerina Johnston1,2,
  2. Katherine Jackson1,
  3. Alyssa Welch3,
  4. Gisela Sjøgaard4,
  5. Tracy Ann Comans3,
  6. Leon Straker5,
  7. Markus Melloh6,7,8,9,
  8. Elise Gane1,10,11,
  9. Steve Bowe6,12,
  10. Shaun O'Leary1,13
  1. 1 School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  2. 2 School of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
  3. 3 Centre for Health Services Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  4. 4 Department of Sport Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
  5. 5 School of Allied Health, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  6. 6 Faculty of Health, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
  7. 7 School of Health Sciences, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland
  8. 8 Curtin Medical School, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  9. 9 UWA Medical School, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  10. 10 Centre for Functioning and Health Research, Metro South Health, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  11. 11 Physiotherapy Department, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  12. 12 Deakin Biostatistics Unit, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
  13. 13 Physiotherapy Department, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Venerina Johnston, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland - Saint Lucia Campus, Saint Lucia, Queensland, Australia; v.johnston{at}uq.edu.au

Abstract

Objectives To determine the impact of a 12-week ergonomic/exercise programme compared with an ergonomic/health education programme on the development of neck pain in office workers over 12 months.

Methods This cluster-randomised trial prospectively recruited office workers from public and private organisations. Only non-neck pain cases at baseline were included (n=484). All participants received an ergonomic workstation review then randomly allocated to receive a neck/shoulder progressive exercise programme (20 min, 3 ×/week; intervention group) or health education sessions (60 min, 1 ×/week; active control) for 12 weeks. Generalised estimating equations evaluated group differences in the point prevalence of neck pain cases (defined as those with a neck pain score of ≥3 on a 0 (no pain) to 9 (worst pain) scale) over time (3, 6, 9 and 12 months) with cumulative incidence of neck pain cases evaluated descriptively.

Results While no significant group × time interaction was evident, the 12-month point prevalence of neck pain cases in the intervention group (10%) was half that of the active control group (20%) (adjusted OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.21 to 1.01, p=0.05). Lower cumulative incidence of neck pain cases was observed in the intervention (17%) compared with active control group (30%) over the 12 months.

Conclusions A combined ergonomics and exercise intervention may have more benefits in preventing neck pain cases in office workers than an ergonomic and health education intervention. Group differences were modest and should be interpreted with caution when considering strategies for primary prevention of neck pain in the office worker population.

Trial registration ACTRN12612001154897

  • Exercise
  • Longitudinal studies
  • Musculoskeletal System
  • Ergonomics

Data availability statement

Data are available upon reasonable request.

https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2022-108275

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available upon reasonable request.

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors VJ: conceptualisation, methodology, resources, funding acquisition, supervision, writing original draft, writing review and editing. KJ: data curation; formal analysis, writing original draft; writing review and editing; visualisation. AW: project administration, data curation, writing review and editing. GS: conceptualisation, methodology, funding acquisition, writing original draft; writing review and editing, supervision. TAC: conceptualisation, methodology, funding acquisition, writing review and editing. LS: conceptualisation, methodology, funding acquisition, writing original draft; writing review and editing, supervision. MM: conceptualisation, methodology, funding acquisition; writing review and editing. SB: data analysis, statistical advice, visualisation, writing review and editing. EG: data curation; formal analysis, supervision; visualisation, writing original draft, writing review and editing. SOL: conceptualisation, methodology, resources, funding acquisition; supervision, writing original draft; writing review and editing.

    • Funding This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC; Fund approval number APP1042508), LS was supported by an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship 1019980.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.