The Association between sleep quality and neck pain among general population of Rawalpindi: An analytical cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective: To assess proportion and relationship of neck pain associated disability and poor quality of sleep in general population of Rawalpindi.

Methodology: An analytical cross-sectional study was carried out online over a period of six months in Rawalpindi employing non-probability consecutive sampling technique.

Any individual between the age of 16-60 years and willing to fill the questionnaire was enrolled. The "Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)" and "The Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire (NPQ)" were utilized to analyse sleep disturbances and neck pain associated disability respectively. The link to questionnaire was shared on WhatsApp. Scores were calculated for each participant. Then, the scores were categorized in four levels of neck pain associated disabilities and two categories of sleep as good vs poor sleep. SPSS 24.0 was used for data analysis at 5% alpha.

Results: A total 383 valid responses were analysed. Mean age of participants was 30.29±13.82 years. An extremely significant association of poor sleep quality and prevalence of neck pain associated disability was observed (p<0.001).

Conclusion: It was concluded that participants with poor sleep experienced moderate to complete neck pain associated disabilities more as compared to participants with good sleep, who predominantly reported no or mild disability. This suggests that poor sleep quality is strongly linked with increased severity of neck pain and functional impairment. Improving sleep quality in persons with neck pain can enhance the prognosis of neck pain-associated impairments in medical settings.