To compare the effect of muscle energy technique and static stretching onneck disabilty index

Background: Neck pain is a common problem which can lead to difficulty in activities. There is lack of evidence to allow conclusions to be drawn about the effectiveness of Muscle energy technique (MET) when compared with stretching exercises on neck disability index. It would be interesting to study if these two techniques yield comparable outcomes and if one technique is superior to the next which should be the alternate choice of therapy. Subjects and methods: 45 patients with subacute mechanical neck pain were randomly assigned to group1, group 2 and group 3. Intervention: Group 1 received 6 sessions of Muscle Energy Technique and 10 sessions of conventional physiotherapy. Group 2 received 6 sessions of static stretching and 10 sessions of conventional physiotherapy. Group 3 received 10 sessions of conventional physiotherapy. All groups were treated for 2 weeks. Outcome measures: Neck disability index scores (NDI). Results: Paired t-test was used for within group analysis. ANOVA followed by post hoc analysis was employed for between group comparisons. No significant difference (p > 0.05) was found on NDI scores between the 3 groups. Statistically significant improvements were found in all the 3 groups for NDI scores (p < 0.05). Discussion and conclusion: The results of this study indicates that both the muscle energy technique and static stretching are equally effective in reducing the neck disability as there is no significant difference between two groups. The MET and static stretching groups demonstrated superior treatment effects to the conventional physiotherapy group on NDI scores.