Comparative Efficacy of Cervical Thoracic Spine Stabilization and Dynamic Exercises in Improving Pain and Functional Status among Cervical Spondylosis

To compare the effectiveness of Cervical-Thoracic Spine Stabilization Exercises and Dynamic Cervical Exercises in reducing pain intensity and improving functional disability among patients with cervical spondylosis.

Single-centre, single-blind, parallel-group quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study with 40 participants. Allocation was based on clinical availability. Outcomes were assessed at baseline, two weeks, and four weeks.

The study was conducted at the Department of Physiotherapy, DHQ Hospital, Okara, after ethical approval (Ref No. LIMIT/DPT/2025/15). Written informed consent was obtained. Participants were allocated by an independent researcher, and the outcome assessor was blinded to group allocation.

Forty adults (30–55 years) with radiologically confirmed cervical spondylosis, chronic neck pain (>3 months), and mild-to-moderate disability were included. Patients with cervical surgery, trauma, radiculopathy, myelopathy, other major musculoskeletal disorders, pregnancy, or lactation were excluded.

All participants received conventional physiotherapy consisting of a 15-minute hot pack and cervical stretching exercises before the exercise intervention. Group A received Cervical-Thoracic Spine Stabilization Exercises, while Group B received Dynamic Cervical Exercises. Both interventions were supervised, performed five days per week for four weeks, with three sets of ten repetitions per session and progression according to patient tolerance.

Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Neck Disability Index (NDI)

The outcome assessor was blinded to each participant's intervention throughout the study to minimize assessment bias. Due to the nature of the physiotherapy interventions, the treating physiotherapist and participants were aware of the allocated intervention. The researcher responsible for group allocation was independent of the outcome assessment process.

Deidentified individual participant data will not be made publicly available due to ethical and confidentiality considerations and because no data-sharing agreement was included in the informed consent process.

Comparative Efficacy of Cervical-Thoracic Spine Stabilization and Dynamic Exercises in Improving Pain and Functional Status among Patients with Cervical Spondylosis. The complete study protocol, including the study objectives, methodology, interventions, eligibility criteria, outcome measures, and statistical methods, will be made available upon reasonable request.

The study protocol will be available from the date of publication of the study results and will remain available for at least five years thereafter.

The study protocol will be available to qualified researchers, clinicians, and academic investigators upon reasonable request for research or educational purposes.

The protocol may be used for academic research, scientific collaboration, systematic reviews, replication studies, and educational purposes. Requests will be reviewed by the corresponding author to ensure that the intended use is consistent with ethical and scientific standards.

The study protocol may be obtained by contacting the corresponding author via the email address provided in the trial registration record.

Interested researchers should submit a request by email describing the purpose of the request and the intended use of the protocol. Requests will be reviewed by the corresponding author, and the protocol will be shared within approximately two weeks, provided the request is for legitimate academic or scientific purposes.

No deidentified individual participant data, informed consent forms, statistical analysis plans, analytic code, clinical study reports, or data dictionary will be shared as part of this study.