Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jan 10;25(1):44.
doi: 10.1186/s12891-023-07111-4.

Measurement properties of cervical joint position error in people with and without neck pain: a systematic review and narrative synthesis

Ahmad AlDahas  1   2 , Nicola R Heneghan  1 , Shouq Althobaiti  1 , Janet A Deane  1 , Alison Rushton  3 , Deborah Falla  4
Affiliations

Measurement properties of cervical joint position error in people with and without neck pain: a systematic review and narrative synthesis

Ahmad AlDahas et al. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. .

Abstract

Introduction: Proprioception can be impaired in people with neck pain. The cervical joint position sense test, which measures joint position error (JPE), is the most common test used to assess neck proprioception. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the measurement properties of this test for the assessment of people with and without neck pain.

Methods: This systematic review was registered prospectively on Prospero (CRD42020188715). It was designed using the COSMIN guidelines and reported in line with the PRISMA checklist. Two reviewers independently searched Medline, Embase, SportDiscus, and CINAHL Plus databases from inception to the 24th July 2022 with an update of the search conducted until 14th of October 2023. The COSMIN risk of bias checklist was used to assess the risk of bias in each study. The updated criteria for good measurement properties were used to rate individual studies and then the overall pooled results. The level of evidence was rated by two reviewers independently using a modified GRADE approach.

Results: Fifteen studies were included in this review, 13 reporting absolute JPE and 2 reporting constant JPE. The measurement properties assessed were reliability, measurement error, and validity. The measurement of JPE showed sufficient reliability and validity, however, the level of evidence was low/very low for both measurement properties, apart from convergent validity of the constant JPE, which was high.

Conclusion: The measure of cervical JPE showed sufficient reliability and validity but with low/very low levels of evidence. Further studies are required to investigate the reliability and validity of this test as well as the responsiveness of the measure.

Keywords: Measurement properties; Neck pain; Position error; Position sense; Proprioception; Sensorimotor.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Prisma flow diagram of the study selection process [20]. CNP = chronic neck pain. NP = neck pain. CDD = cervicogenic disc disease. n = number of studies
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Peng B, Yang L, Li Y, Liu T, Liu Y. Cervical proprioception impairment in neck pain-pathophysiology, clinical evaluation, and management: a narrative review. Pain Ther. 2021;10:143–64. doi: 10.1007/s40122-020-00230-z. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Qu N, Tian HC, De Martino E, Zhang B. Neck pain: do we know enough about the sensorimotor control system? Front Comput Neurosci. 2022;16(July):1–10. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alahmari K, Reddy RS, Silvian P, Ahmad I, Nagaraj V, Mahtab M. Intra- and inter-rater reliability of neutral head position and target head position tests in patients with and without neck pain. Brazilian J Phys Ther. 2017;21(4):259–67. doi: 10.1016/j.bjpt.2017.05.003. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Revel M, Andre-Deshays C, Minguet M. Cervicocephalic kinesthetic sensibility in patients with cervical pain. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 1991;72(5):288–91. - PubMed
    1. Wibault J, Vaillant J, Vuillerme N, Dedering Å, Peolsson A. Using the cervical range of motion (CROM) device to assess head repositioning accuracy in individuals with cervical radiculopathy in comparison to neck- healthy individuals. Man Ther. 2013;18(5):403–9. doi: 10.1016/j.math.2013.02.004. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types