Table 2. The within-group and between-group comparisons for the outcome measures.
| CE group | Difference (post-pre) | Control group | Difference (post-pre) | Between groups 95% CI | Effect sizes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-test | Post-test | Pre-test | Post-test | |||||
| Pain (VAS) | 7.7 (2.4)a | 3.4 (3.1)* | −4.3† | 8.7 (1.9) | 7.7 (1.7)* | −1.0 | (1.9 to 4.6) | 1.8 |
| Disability (NDI) | 9.6 (2.2) | 5.6 (2.9)* | −3.9† | 9.5 (2.3) | 7.6 (2.4)* | −1.9 | (0.5 to 3.5) | 0.9 |
| SCL-90-R | ||||||||
| Depression | 37.7 (6.9) | 28.3 (5.5)* | −9.4† | 36.5 (4.9) | 32.1 (4.1)* | −4.3 | (−8.8 to −1.4) | 1.0 |
| Anxiety | 29.1 (4.7) | 26.0 (5.0)* | −3.1 | 29.2 (3.9) | 27.9 (4.5) | −1.3 | (3.9 to 0.3) | 0.6 |
| HSCL-25 | 53.8 (8.1) | 47.5 (8.8)* | −5.3† | 48.5 (7.2) | 45.7 (7.4)* | −1.8 | (−6.7 to −0.4) | 0.8 |
aMeans (SD). *Significant difference within group (p < 0.05); †Significant difference between groups (p < 0.05). CE: cervical exercise; CI: confidence interval; VAS: visual analogue scale (range 0–10); NDI: neck disability index (range 0–50); SCL-90-R: symptom checklist-90-revision (range; depression 0–52, anxiety 0–40), HSCL-25: Hopkins symptom checklist-25 (range 0–75). Cohen’s effect sizes: 0.15 = small, 0.4 = medium, 0.75 = large, 1.1= very large, 1.45= huge effect size