Comparison of patients with cervical and lumbar pain problems for pain, emotional status, and quality of life

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the patients with cervical and lumbar region pain problems for pain, emotional status and quality of life. Methods: Six hundred voluntary patients aged between 20-65 years (lumbar group: 43.2 +/- 11 years, neck group: 42,8 +/- 10,2 years), 300 of the patients with cervical pain and 300 patients with low back pain problems participated in the study. We evaluated the degree and nature of pain by Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ), the emotional status by Hospital Anxiety-Depression Measure (HAD) and the quality of life by Nottingham Health Profile (NHP). Results: There was no difference between pain scores of the patients (lumbar group: 6.7 +/- 2, neck group: 6.8 +/- 2) (p> 0.05). Comparisons showed that there was no statistically significant relationship between the groups for HAD scores (HADanxiety lumbar group 7.92 +/- 3.99 cervical group 8.02 +/- 4, HADdepression lumbar group 6.46 +/- 3.68 cervical group 6.54 +/- 3.65) (p> 0.05), but there was significant difference for pain and physical activity parameters of NHP scores for back pain group (NHP pain; lumbar group: 54.85 +/- 26.16, neck group: 45.13 +/- 29.47), (NHP physical activity; lumbar group: 33.35 +/- 16.18, neck group: 25.65 +/- 17.51) (p< 0.05). Conclusion: The result of the study showed that the quality of life for low back pain group was more affected than neck pain group.