Impact of Reflexology on Mechanical Neck Pain in Post-menopausal Office Workers

resumen

Heba Embaby*

Background: Reflexology is a popular non–invasive alternative therapy. It's a safe method and doesn't require special equipment. It has been proved that reflexology influences many health conditions and musculoskeletal pain. However, no research has cleared the effect of reflexology on chronic mechanical neck pain (CMNP), which is recorded as the commonest complaint in office workers. Objective: The study was an attempt to measure the influence of reflexology technique on CMNP, range of motion and neck muscle strength in middle aged office worker females.

Method: Thirty post-menopausal subjects with age ranged from 50-60 years suffering from mechanical neck pain for more than 3 months were assigned randomly into two groups, experimental group received 20 minutes reflexology sessions twice a week for 4 weeks, and the other group underwent self-stretches in-between their work time (control). Assessment for pain by visual analogue scale (VAS), range of motion (ROM), muscle strength by manual muscle test (MMT) and disability index was done before and after the treatment for both groups.

Results: According to results there were significant improvements in ROM and muscle strength and a reduction in pain and disability index in the study group, while there were significant differences in some parameters of the control group.

Conclusion: It was concluded that reflexology is an effective, safe and non-invasive complementary treatment for chronic mechanical neck pain.