As the demand for evidence-based practices grows, so too does the demand to substantiate the techniques used during evaluation, and to find tests sensitive enough to be used to identify improvements during treatment.

Non-specific neck muscle pain is the latest area of systematic review.  Non-specific neck muscle pain can lead to cervical instability, decreased position sense, and lowered endurance.  Muscle strengthening through exercise is one method of increasing cervical stability and reducing pain.  But, how does one measure improvements in cervical muscle strength?

“Evaluating the progress of neck muscle function during treatment requires tests which can be carried out easily and meet certain standards for clinimetric properties.”  Researchers de Koning and colleagues recently published their systematic review in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders.

The results in a nutshell?  There weren’t enough high-quality studies in this category to make strong recommendations.  The muscle endurance of short neck flexors test, and the Cervical PILE (C-PILE) test were the only tests recommended for good reliability.  Of these two there was not enough information to recommend the tests based on agreement, validity, responsiveness to change, or interpretability.  None of the other tests (manual muscle test, craniocervical flexion test, dynamometer, or timed weighted overhead test) could be recommended at all.