A Comparison of Neck Pain in Students with Different Academic Degrees with an Emphasis on Gender

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent of neck pain in bachelor, master and PhD students with an emphasis on their gender. In this cross-sectional study which was descriptive (causal-comparative), 511 female and 516 male students were selected from six universities in Tehran. The mean neck pain in subjects was measured by Visual Assessment Scale (VAS) during the past year. One-way ANOVA and Tukey post hoc tests were used for the analysis of the variable at a significance level of 0.05. The results of this study showed a significant difference in the extent of neck pain between male and female bachelor, master, and PhD students (P≤0.05), with both male and female PhD students having significantly more pain than bachelor and master students (P≤0.05). Thus, prevention and treatment of neck pain is more important for the PhD students to decrease its prevalence and related problems.