Abstract

Purpose: To compare neck pain and disability between people with and without latent myofascial trigger points (MTrP) in Upper Trapezius. Methods: The participants of the study were asked to fill the Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire (NPNQ) following which bilateral upper trapezius muscles were assessed for the presence of latent MTrP. The participants were placed into two groups; an experimental group who had latent MTrP in upper trapezius and a control group who did not have trigger points. Twenty seven people (22 women and 5 men, age range 18 to 22 years, mean age 19.62 +/- 1.33 years) were in the experimental group and Fifteen people (10 women and 5 men, age range 18 to 23 years, mean age 18.86 +/- 1.55 years) were in the control group. Analysis: The scores from the NPNQ was compared between the two groups using unpaired‘t’ test. Results: The results showed that the neck pain and disability is significantly higher in people with latent MTrP than the people without Latent MTrP. Conclusion: The latent MTrP despite of being quiescent might have a significant role to play in influencing neck pain and disability.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.