The effect of adding gaze direction recognition to stabilizing exercises on pain, muscular endurance and proprioception women with chronic non-specific neck pain

Aims and background: Gaze direction recognition is one of the new treatments method for neck pain. The positive effects of stabilization exercises in various studies on neck pain have also been confirmed. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of adding a gaze direction recognition program to common stabilizing exercises on neck pain intensity, muscular endurance and proprioception of women with chronic non-specific neck pain.   Materials and methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 45 women with chronic neck pain were divided into three equal groups: stabilization exercises, combination group (stabilization and gaze direction recognition) and control. Research variables included pain intensity, muscle endurance, and Proprioception. To measure them in the pre-test, visual pain scale, PILE endurance test and neck joint repositioning error test were used, respectively. Then, after eight weeks of training in training groups, post-test were performed in pre-test conditions. Analysis of variance with repeated measures and paired t-test were used to evaluate the results. Significance level was considered in this study (α <0.05). Findings: The results of the present study showed that performing exercises in two training groups had a significant effect on pain intensity and proprioception and adding a gaze direction recognition program to common stabilizing exercises led to more improvement in pain intensity and proprioception in female with chronic non-specific neck pain. (P <0.05).     Conclusion: Considering that Adding a gaze direction recognition program to stabilizing exercises can lead to better results in reducing the severity of pain and increasing the properioception females with chronic neck pain. The use of these exercises along with other exercises is recommended for female with non-specific chronic neck pain.