Pressure pain thresholds in university students with undertreated neck pain: comparison with asymptomatic individuals, reliability and measurement error

Abstract

Aims: The aims of this study were to compare pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) between university students with and without undertreated neck pain and to assess intra-rater reliability and measurement error.

Methods: University students with sub-clinical neck pain (n = 25) and age- and sex-matched pain-free participants (n = 25) were assessed for pain characteristics (location, intensity, frequency and duration) and had their PPTs measured bilaterally at C5–C6 zygapophyseal joint and upper trapezius. PPT measurements were taken three times at each site.

Results: PPT measurements showed substantial to almost perfect intra-rater reliability (ICC between 0.79 and 0.95) but high minimal detectable differences (between 5.29 N/cm² and 9.20 N/cm²). PPTs values were significantly lower in the group of participants with sub-clinical neck pain compared with the asymptomatic group (p<.05) for three out of the four sites of measurement.

Conclusions: PPT measurements may be relevant to distinguish between individuals or groups but may be of limited value when assessing changes over time in the same individual with undertreated neck pain.

Keywords:

• Neck pain
• pressure pain threshold
• subclinical
• reliability
• measurement error

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This article was supported by FEDER through the operation POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007746 funded by the Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização – COMPETE2020 and by National Funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within CINTESIS, R&D Unit [reference UID/IC/4255/2013].