Chronic neck pain is associated with altered gait performance compared to healthy controls: Cross-sectional observations.
Wren Burton, Yan Ma, Cynthia Long and 6 others
PMID 41038784WHAT IT FOUND
People with chronic neck pain walked slower and showed more stride variability than healthy controls, even during simple walking.
Pain severity linked to these gait changes. This suggests neck pain may affect mobility, but the cross-sectional design cannot prove pain causes the gait alterations.
Key findings
01Participants with chronic neck pain had slower gait speeds and higher stride time variability compared to controls across multiple walking conditions.
02Within the chronic neck pain group, higher pain intensity was associated with decreased gait speed and increased gait variability.
03The chronic neck pain group reported nearly three times as many falls in the past year as the healthy control group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The cross-sectional design cannot establish that neck pain causes the gait changes. Only 13% of participants had pain exclusively in the neck; most had multisite pain, making it difficult to attribute gait changes solely to neck pain. The study population was relatively young (mean age ~40), so findings may not apply to older adults. There are no established clinically important differences for the gait variability measures used, so the real-world impact of the observed changes is unclear.
Declared interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that treating the neck will automatically improve gait. The study shows an association, not causation, and most participants had pain in other body areas, so neck-specific interventions were not tested.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →