Effects of Kendall Exercise vs. Gong’s Mobilization on Pain, Range of Motion, Function, and Strength in Cases With Text Neck Syndrome

To determine the impact of Kendall versus Gong’s intervention according to pain sensation, range of movement, function, strength, and posture in cases with text neck syndrome.

This randomized clinical trial recruited a sample of 24 patients with text neck syndrome from Fatima Hospital, Sargodha, Pakistan from January to April 2021. The samples were randomly divided into 2 groups using the envelope method. Group A received Kendall’s intervention while group B received Gong’s mobilization. The intervention was performed in 18 sessions for each patient during 6 weeks i.e. 3 per week. Neck disability index, numeric pain rating scale, cervical range of motion (ROM), cranio-vertebral angle (CVA), rounded shoulder angle (RSA), and modified sphygmomanometer test were used to collect data. All outcomes were measured at baseline and six weeks after intervention and analyzed using SPSS software, version 23. T-test was used to analyze within and between-group differences, and P<0.05 was considered significant. 

A significant difference with P<0.05 was observed for within and between group statistics. Gong’s mobilization showed more effectiveness (P<0.001) for all output measures depending on differences between mean scores.

The study concluded that both Kendall’s exercise and Gong’s mobilization were useful in the reduction of pain and functional disability; improvement in cervical range and strength of cervical muscles. However, Gong’s mobilization was superior to Kendall’s exercise in improving text neck syndrome for outcome measures, including neck pain, disability, craniovertebral angle, rounded shoulder angle, cervical range of motion (ROM), and cervical muscle strength.