TENSION NECK AND EVALUATION OF A PHYSICAL-TRAINING COURSE AMONG OFFICE WORKERS IN A BANK CORPORATION

The purpose of this study tv as to investigate the effects of a physic al training course in a group of patients (n = 74) suffering from chro nic tension neck. All participants in the course were employed by a ba nk corporation in Helsinki, Finland. A comparable control group (n = 7 7) consisted of office workers with tension neck from the same bank co rporation who did not attend any training course. The outcome was anal ysed 6 months after the course. Pain and disability in the neck and sh oulder region did not vary significantly between the group which parti cipated ill the training course and the control group, The experimenta l group had increased the amount of physical workout compared to the c ontrol group (83.7% vs 69.0%, P = 0.0448). Also, regarding the frequen cy of relaxation and stretching exercises the two groups differed sign ificantly: the experimental group had continued to perform exercises m ore often (P = 0.0434). The frequency of sick leave days did not signi ficantly differ between the groups, but the office workers in the expe rimental group had more periods of extended sick leave (>10 days) and the controls had more frequent short sick leaves. The experimental gro up did inc tease their physical workout significantly compared with th e controls, but no differences were detected regarding pain and disabi lity. In order to gain more benefit more attention should be paid to t he educational part of the training courses in order to enhance the pa tients' self-care abilities. Also, strategies to alleviate psychosocia l problems and organized relaxation exercises could decrease muscle te nsion in the neck in office workers.