Journal of Novel Physiotherapies
Open Access

Research Article

Cervical Kinematics of Fast Neck Motion across Age

¹Department of Physical Therapy, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel

²CCRE Spine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia

Corresponding Author:

Hilla Sarig-Bahat
Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences
Physical Therapy Department, University of Haifa
Mount Carmel, Haifa, 31905 Israel
Tel: +972-545380483
Fax: +972-4-8288140
E-mail: hbahat@research.haifa.ac.il

Received Date: September 03, 2016; Accepted Date: September 27, 2016; Published Date: October 05, 2016

Citation: Sarig Bahat H, Igbariya M, Quek J, Treleaven J (2016) Cervical Kinematics of Fast Neck Motion across Age. J Nov Physiother 6:306. doi: 10.4172/2165-7025.1000306

Copyright: © 2016 Sarig Bahat H, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Purpose: To evaluate the velocity, smoothness, and symmetry of fast cervical motion in asymptomatic individuals of four age groups, and to investigate the relationship between age and these measures. Methods: Cross-sectional study with fifty-eight asymptomatic volunteers (28 F, 30 M), aged 18-80 (mean age=44.14 ± 17.35) were assessed using a customized Virtual Reality (VR) system. VR head-mounted display stimulated fast neck movements in response to virtual targets appearing randomly. Outcome measures were neck motion velocity, smoothness, and symmetry of velocity profile. Main findings: The eldest group differed from younger age groups in peak and mean velocity of neck motion. Smoothness demonstrated age-group difference only between the youngest and oldest groups. Linear regression analysis showed significant negative correlations in mean and peak velocity, and in smoothness with age, excluding smoothness in right rotation. No age-group differences and no significant correlations were found for time-to-peakvelocity in all directions of neck movement (p>0.05). Conclusion: This study showed that age influenced the velocity in which asymptomatic individuals could move their neck, specifically in elders over 60 years of age. Clinically, this may suggest that when elders with neck pain present with slower cervical motion, it is probably partly due to aging and thus should be taken into account in the management and expected level of performance.

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