• Ward J

• Low Back Pain
• Manipulation, Spinal
• Neck Pain
• Open Access Document
• Students, Chiropractic / Australia

Objective: Determine if spinal manipulation positively impacted standing center of pressure of college students with combined neck and low back pain.

 Methods: At baseline 97 participants with combined neck (2.8 + 1.3 Numeric Rating Scale/NRS, mean + SD) and low back (3.1 + 1.5 NRS) pain had their standing eyes-closed balance assessed for 30 seconds on a force plate. Participants then stepped off the force plate and received spinal manipulation to their cervical and lumbar spine areas of greatest pain. Afterwards, participants had their balance reassessed for 30 seconds. Anterior-to-posterior and medial-to-lateral center of pressure (COP) mean amplitude and range were the dependent variables compared pre to post utilizing a paired samples t-test.

 Results: There was no statistically significant immediate change in center of pressure parameters assessed in response to spinal manipulation for individuals with combined neck (2.8 + 1.3 NRS, 15.3 + 4.9 months) and low back (3.1 + 1.5 NRS, 20.4 + 8.8 months) pain. However, sub-analysis of 32 individuals with moderate combined neck (4.1 + 1.2 NRS, 32.1 + 6.6 months) and low back (4.6 + 1.3 NRS, 31.8 + 12.5 months) pain demonstrated small positive improvements in medial-to-lateral COP mean amplitude and range.

 Conclusion: Spinal manipulation did not impact immediate COP amplitude or range of chiropractic college students with low levels of combined neck and low back pain.

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