Effectiveness of posture-correction interventions for mechanical neck pain and posture among people with forward head posture: protocol for a systematic review

• Published in: BMJ open Vol. 12; no. 3; p. e054691
• Main Authors: Balthillaya, Ganesh M, Parsekar, Shradha S, Gangavelli, Ranganath, Prabhu, Narayan, Bhat, Shyamasunder N, Rao, Bhamini Krishna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England British Medical Journal Publishing Group 09-03-2022; BMJ Publishing Group LTD; BMJ Publishing Group
• Series: Protocol
• Subjects: Activities of Daily Living; Age; Chest Pain; Evidence Based Practice; Exercise; Exercise Therapy; Humans; Intervention; musculoskeletal disorders; Neck; Neck pain; Neck Pain - therapy; occupational & industrial medicine; Physical therapy; Posture; Quality of Life; Range of motion; rehabilitation medicine; Spine; Systematic review; Systematic Reviews as Topic; occupational & industrial medicine; musculoskeletal disorders; rehabilitation medicine; spine
• ISSN: 2044-6055; 2044-6055
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054691

IntroductionForward head posture (FHP) is the most common postural deviation of the upper back. It is believed to be one of the predisposing factors for the development of mechanical neck pain (MNP). We propose doing a systematic review to find the effectiveness of interventions targeted on FHP with MNP and assess implementation fidelity associated with these interventions.Methods and analysisMedline (PubMed), Web of Science (Social Science Citation Index), EMBASE, Scopus, PEDro and CINAHL databases will be searched for studies published in English from their inception. Forward and backward citations of the included studies will be investigated for identifying additional records. We will include randomised controlled trials and non/quasi-experimental studies with two groups assessing the effectiveness of interventions targeted on FHP with MNP. Observational studies, non-randomised studies with single group and reviews will be excluded. We will consider the following outcome measures: postural variables of FHP, neck pain, performance-based functional disability scores of the neck, quality of life, basic activities of daily living and work-related outcomes. The unique citations will be screened by titles/abstracts and full texts, independently. The Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool will be used to critically appraise the included studies. The risk of bias and data abstraction of included studies will be undertaken independently. A qualitative synthesis will be conducted and, if sufficient studies with comparable outcome measures are available, we will statistically pool the result.Ethics and disseminationWe will undertake a systematic review of primary studies, and will not directly recruit participants hence, ethical clearance is not applicable. We will aim to present the findings of the completed systematic review at an international conference and subsequently submit the manuscript in a peer-reviewed journal for publication.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42021250310.