Intention to treat analyses for secondary outcomes. Data are means and mean difference, except for Subjective improvement (medians and median difference) and Taking pain medications (frequencies and odds ratio). All estimates, except that for Subjective improvement, adjusted for treatment center, sex, chronicity and baseline value (odds ratio for Taking pain medications is adjusted, but raw cell frequencies are shown). Lower scores are better on Neck Pain and Disability Scale, Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire, pain affect, worst problem, and anticipated improvement. Higher scores are better on SF-36 physical and mental component summaries and subjective improvement.
| General Exercise | 6 Weeks | p | General Exercise | 6 Months | p | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Specific Exercise | Difference (95% CI) | Specific Exercise | Difference (95% CI) | |||||
| Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire (0–100)a* | 37.91 | 38.69 | –0.78 (–5.81, 4.26) | 0.76 | 18.42 | 19.19 | –0.77 (–5.96, 4.42) | 0.77 |
| Pain affect (0–10)b* | 4.00 | 4.74 | –0.74 (–1.78, 0.31) | 0.16 | 4.01 | 4.41 | –0.4 (–1.49, 0.69) | 0.47 |
| Worst problem (0–10)c* | 4.42 | 4.75 | –0.33 (–1.40, 0.74) | 0.53 | 4.23 | 4.37 | –0.14 (–1.19, 0.92) | 0.80 |
| SF-36 physical component summary (0–100)d* | 38.83 | 34.72 | 4.11 (–1.71, 9.92) | 0.16 | 37.21 | 34.90 | 2.31 (–3.19, 7.82) | 0.72 |
| SF-36 mental component summary (0–100)d* | 43.64 | 42.43 | 1.21 (–4.83, 7.25) | 0.69 | 45.40 | 43.51 | 1.89 (–4.24, 8.00) | 0.54 |
| Subjective improvement (1–5 scale)* | 4.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 (0.0, 0.0) | 0.94 | 4.0 | 3.5 | 0.0 (0.0, 1.0) | 0.35 |
| Taking pain medicationsf† | ||||||||
| Yes | 25 (68) | 14 (38) | 0.29 (0.10, 0.84) | 0.02 | 19 (51) | 18 (49) | 1.16 (0.37, 3.59) | 0.80 |
| No | 12 (32) | 23 (62) | 18 (49) | 19 (51) | ||||
↵* Difference calculated as general exercise group score minus specific exercise group score.
↵† Reference category for odds ratio: General exercise. Missing values imputed by multiple imputation:
↵a 12 at 6 weeks, 13 at 6 months;
↵b 8 at 6 weeks, 12 at 6 months;
↵c 17 at 6 weeks, 18 at 6 months;
↵d 19 at 6 weeks, 25 at 6 months;
e no data available for imputation at 6 weeks, 5 at 6 months (no data available for 2 cases);
↵f 8 at 6 weeks, 11 at 6 months. SF-36: Medical Outcome Study Short Form-36.