Association of neck pain with stress, anxiety and depression among young adults

Abstract

Objective :To determine the pain intensity of non-specific neck pain and find out the association of neck pain with stress, anxiety and depression.

Methodology: A cross sectional study was carried out on 254 young adults in Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University Islamabad, Pakistan from July to December 2017. Participants of either gender in age range 18 to 24 years and have non-specific neck pain were included in the study. All the participants with any illness or trauma that might cause neck pain and pathological condition associated with neck were excluded from the study. “Numeric Pain Rating Scale” and “Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21” were used to evaluate pain intensity and negative emotions such as depression, anxiety and stress.  Chi square test was applied to determine the association between pain and depression, anxiety and stress. The data was analyzed through SPSS v-21.

Results: Out of total 254 participants 212 (83.5%) were females and 42 (16.5%) were males. Participants mean age was 20.66±1.83 (years). According to the results stress and depression had significant association with neck pain (p value <0.05). However, no association of neck pain was observed with anxiety as p value was >0.05.

Conclusion: The study concluded that majority of the participants had mild level of non-specific neck pain and significant association of neck pain was found with depression and stress.

Key words: Anxiety, Depression, Mental health, Pain, Stress.