Development of instruments to access physiological and physical neck pain risk factors

Neck pain has the potential to result in altered afferent input to the central nervous system which may thereby result in altered sensorimotor integration and eventually further disability. One “at risk” population for neck pain may be university students, particularly given the growing use of laptop computers in the university setting. This thesis presents two pilot studies which aim to develop and assess instruments to use as screening tools for risk factors associated with neck pain. The first study explores the environment in which university students utilize their laptop computers and the relationship to known risk factors for neck pain. A new questionnaire, The Student Laptop Use and Neck Pain Risk Questionnaire (SLUNPRQ) was created to measure the presence of risk factors known to increase the risk of developing neck pain. This questionnaire was piloted for reliability using test- retest measures. Results indicated that the SLUNPRQ had good reliability based on Cohen’s Kappa scores. A modified questionnaire was developed based on questions with either low reliability or ambiguous answers and is ready for further testing. The second study sought to determine if dual somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) ratios changed with long term chiropractic care. This was part of the overall goal of finding neural markers that could identify those who are at risk for developing neck pain. This study sought to determine the feasibility of using dual SEPs to evaluate changes in neural markers of sensorimotor integration after 12 weeks of chiropractic care and demonstrated that dual SEPs shows potential as a marker to screen individuals at risk of neck pain as the SEP markers showed improvement after long term chiropractic care.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Health Sciences (MHSc)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Community Health

Grantor

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Gray, Diana

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Murphy, Bernadette

• Laptop use
• Reliability
• Laptop questionnaire
• Neck pain
• Dual somatosensory evoked potentials

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10155/202

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ontariotechu.scholaris.ca:10155/202