This suggests that degenerative changes in the neck can contribute to the etiology of neck symptoms, but the associations are too modest to be used as a basis for clinical decisions. Researchers from the Chiropractors’ Knowledge Center and Clinical Biomechanics (SDU) reached this conclusion after conducting a cross-sectional study of the results of MRI scans of patients with lower back pain.
The study was a secondary analysis of 600 patients with lower back pain aged 18-40 recruited from a non-surgical outpatient clinic. 54% of the participants were women. 31% of the participants had moderate or severe neck pain, 59% had moderate or severe functional impairment in the neck, 42% reported headaches, and 35% had one or more cervical degenerative MRI findings.
Jensen RK, Dissing KB, Jensen TS, Clausen SH, Arnbak B. The association between cervical degenerative MRI findings and self-reported neck pain, disability and headache: a cross-sectional exploratory study. Chiropractic and Manual Therapies. 2023 Oct 11;31(1):45.