Virtual reality exercises in an interdisciplinary rehabilitation programme for persons with chronic neck pain: A feasibility study

Abstract Background: Recent clinical studies support the effectiveness of chronic neck pain specific multidisciplinary biopsychosocial rehabilitation programmes, but prognostic factors for improvement in pain and disability are unknown. The aim of this study was to identify predictors of improvement in patients with chronic neck pain after participation in a three-week multidisciplinary biopsychosocial rehabilitation programme. Methods: In this observational prospective cohort study patients were assessed at the beginning and the end of a multidisciplinary biopsychosocial rehabilitation programme. Inclusion for participation in the rehabilitation programme depended upon an interdisciplinary pain assessment. Consecutive patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were invited to participate in the study. A total of 112 patients participated. The primary outcomes, pain and disability, were measured by the Northern American Spine Society questionnaire (NASS), quantified by effect sizes (ES), and modelled with various co-factors. Secondary outcomes were mental health measured by the Short-Form 36 and total cervical active range of motion measured by a reliable, validated cervical range of motion instrument.Results: Patients’ mean age was 59.7 years (standard deviation=10.8); 70.5% were female. Patients improved significantly (p<0.001) in pain+disability (ES=0.56), mental health (ES=0.45) and cervical range of motion (ES=0.39). Prognostic factors for improvement in pain+disability were worse baseline scores (partial, adjusted correlation r=0.41, p<0.001), higher age (r=0.22, p=0.024), higher improvement in cervical range of motion (r=0.21, p=0.033) and higher improvement in mental health scale (r=0.20; p=0.047). Conclusions: Better outcomes for patients with improvement in neck range of motion, improvement of mental health, and higher age support the use of multidisciplinary biopsychosocial rehabilitation that combines physical and psychological treatment components. Furthermore, the results suggest that older patients may improve more compared to younger patients.

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Effectiveness of Virtual Reality in Patients With Chronic Neck Pain

Case Medical Research ◽

10.31525/ct1-nct04014998 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Neck Pain ◽

Chronic Neck Pain

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Evaluation of the Effects of Virtual Reality in Patients With Chronic Neck Pain

Case Medical Research ◽

10.31525/ct1-nct04265248 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Neck Pain ◽

Chronic Neck Pain

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Adaptive Rehabilitation Bots in Serious Games

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20247037 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (24) ◽

pp. 7037

Author(s):

Imad Afyouni ◽

Abdullah Murad ◽

Anas Einea

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Neck Pain ◽

Serious Games ◽

Motion Tracking ◽

Chronic Neck Pain ◽

Difficulty Level ◽

Traditional Procedure ◽

Multimedia Technologies ◽

Adaptive Solution ◽

And Performance

In recent years, we have witnessed a growing adoption of serious games in telerehabilitation by taking advantage of advanced multimedia technologies such as motion capture and virtual reality devices. Current serious game solutions for telerehabilitation suffer form lack of personalization and adaptiveness to patients’ needs and performance. This paper introduces “RehaBot”, a framework for adaptive generation of personalized serious games in the context of remote rehabilitation, using 3D motion tracking and virtual reality environments. A personalized and versatile gaming platform with embedded virtual assistants, called “Rehab bots”, is created. Utilizing these rehab bots, all workout session scenes will include a guide with various sets of motions to direct patients towards performing the prescribed exercises correctly. Furthermore, the rehab bots employ a robust technique to adjust the workout difficulty level in real-time to match the patients’ performance. This technique correlates and matches the patterns of the precalculated motions with patients’ motions to produce a highly engaging gamified workout experience. Moreover, multimodal insights are passed to the users pointing out the joints that did not perform as anticipated along with suggestions to improve the current performance. A clinical study was conducted on patients dealing with chronic neck pain to prove the usability and effectiveness of our adjunctive online physiotherapy solution. Ten participants used the serious gaming platform, while four participants performed the traditional procedure with an active program for neck pain relief, for two weeks (10 min, 10 sessions/2 weeks). Feasibility and user experience measures were collected, and the results of experiments show that patients found our game-based adaptive solution engaging and effective, and most of them could achieve high accuracy in performing the personalized prescribed therapies.

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Use of Virtual Reality Feedback for Patients with Chronic Neck Pain and Kinesiophobia

IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering ◽

10.1109/tnsre.2016.2621886 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 25 (8) ◽

pp. 1240-1248 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Karen B. Chen ◽

Mary E. Sesto ◽

Kevin Ponto ◽

James Leonard ◽

Andrea Mason ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Neck Pain ◽

Chronic Neck Pain

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A feasibility study assessing manual therapies to different regions of the spine for patients with subacute or chronic neck pain

Journal of Chiropractic Medicine ◽

10.1016/j.jcme.2007.10.004 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 1-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Richard G. Strunk ◽

Maria A. Hondras

Keyword(s):

Neck Pain ◽

Feasibility Study ◽

Chronic Neck Pain ◽

Manual Therapies

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Prognostic factors for the improvement of pain and disability following multidisciplinary rehabilitation in patients with chronic neck pain

BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders ◽

10.1186/s12891-021-04194-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Martin Weigl ◽

Josefine Letzel ◽

Felix Angst

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Prognostic Factors ◽

Neck Pain ◽

Short Form ◽

Psychosocial Rehabilitation ◽

Chronic Neck Pain ◽

Rehabilitation Programme ◽

Factors Associated ◽

Pain Disability

Abstract Background Recent clinical studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of specific, multidisciplinary, bio-psychosocial, rehabilitation programmes for chronic neck pain. However, prognostic factors for the improvement of pain and disability are mostly unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore prognostic factors associated with improvements in chronic neck pain following participation in a three-week, multidisciplinary, bio-psychosocial, rehabilitation programme. Methods In this observational, prospective cohort study, a total of 112 patients were assessed at the beginning, end, and 6 months following the completion of a multidisciplinary, bio-psychosocial, rehabilitation programme. Inclusion for participation in the rehabilitation programme depended upon an interdisciplinary pain assessment. The primary outcome was neck pain and disability, which was measured using the Northern American Spine Society questionnaire for pain+disability and was quantified with effect sizes (ES). Multivariable linear regression analyses were used to explore potential prognostic factors associated with improvements in pain and disability scores at discharge and at the 6-month follow-up period. Results The mean age of the patients was 59.7 years (standard deviation = 10.8), and 70.5% were female. Patients showed improvement in pain+disability at discharge (ES = 0.56; p < 0.001), which was sustained at the 6-month follow-up (ES = 0.56; p < 0.001). Prognostic factors associated with improvement in pain+disability scores at discharge included poor pain+disability baseline scores (partial, adjusted correlation r = 0.414, p < 0.001), older age (r = 0.223, p = 0.024), a good baseline cervical active range-of-motion (ROM) (r = 0.210, p < 0.033), and improvements in the Short-form 36 mental health scale (r = 0.197; p = 0.047) and cervical ROMs (r = 0.195, p = 0.048) from baseline values. Prognostic factors associated with improvements in pain+disability at the 6-month follow-up were similar and included poor pain+disability baseline scores (partial, adjusted correlation r = 0.364, p < 0.001), improvements in the Short-form 36 mental health scale (r = 0.232; p = 0.002), cervical ROMs (r = 0.247, p = 0.011), and better cervical ROM baseline scores. However, older age was not a factor (r = 0.134, p = 0.172). Conclusions Future prognostic models for treatment outcomes in chronic neck pain patients should consider cervical ROM and mental health status. Knowledge of prognostic factors may help in the adoption of individualized treatment for patients who are less likely to respond to multidisciplinary rehabilitation.

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