Sensorimotor Control in Individuals With Idiopathic Neck Pain and Healthy Individuals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objectives: (1) To identify reported tests used to assess sensorimotor control in individuals with idiopathic neck pain and (2) to investigate whether these tests can quantify differences between individuals with idiopathic neck pain and healthy individuals.

Data sources: Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, MEDLINE, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus.

Study selection: Studies reporting sensorimotor outcomes in individuals with idiopathic neck pain or healthy individuals were identified. There were 1,677 records screened independently by 2 researchers for eligibility: 43 studies were included in the review, with 30 of these studies included in the meta-analysis.

Data extraction: Methodologic quality was determined using the Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies. Data were extracted using a standardized extraction table.

Data synthesis: Sensorimotor control was most commonly assessed by joint position error and postural sway. Pooled means for joint position error after cervical rotation in individuals with neck pain (range, 2.2°-9.8°) differed significantly (P=.04) compared with healthy individuals (range, 1.66°-5.1°). Postural sway with eyes open ranged from 4.85 to 10.5cm² (neck pain) and 3.5 to 6.6cm² (healthy) (P=.16), and postural sway with eyes closed ranged from 2.51 to 16.6cm² (neck pain) and 2.74 to 10.9cm² (healthy) (P=.30). Individual studies, but not meta-analysis, demonstrated differences between neck pain and healthy groups for postural sway. Other test conditions and other tests were not sufficiently investigated to enable pooling of data.

Conclusions: The findings from this review suggest sensorimotor control testing may be clinically useful in individuals with idiopathic neck pain. However, results should be interpreted with caution because clinical differences were small; therefore, further cross-sectional research with larger samples is needed to determine the magnitude of the relation between sensorimotor control and pain and to assess any potential clinical significance.