Investigation of the effect of cervical exercises on head and neck position in individuals with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

Burçin SERİNTÜRK TURGUT, Investigation of the Effect of Cervical Exercises on Head and Neck Position in Individuals with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis, Hasan Kalyoncu University, Institute of Graduate Education, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Master's Thesis, Gaziantep 2025. This study aimed to investigate the effects of cervical exercises on head and neck position in individuals with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) and to examine the effects of cervical exercises to be applied in addition to scoliosis-specific exercises (PSSE) on global spinal balance, cervical sagittal balance, cervical coronal balance, pain, body image and quality of life. A total of 45 individuals with AIS participated in the study. Individuals with AIS were randomly divided into two groups: the control group (n=21) in which only PSSE would be applied and the study group (n=24) in which cervical exercises would be applied in addition to these exercises. Demographic information of the individuals, Cobb angles using antero-posterior radiography, trunk rotation degrees in the forward bending test, proprioceptive evaluation of the cervical region with the cervical repositioning test and joint position sense error measurements in all directions were recorded. Endurance of the deep cervical flexors was recorded. Craniovertebral angle measurements were made with photographs taken from the lateral view of the participants. Pain was assessed with the McGill Pain Scale-Short Form, neck pain score with the Neck Pain and Disability Score (BADS), and quality of life was assessed with the Scoliosis Research Society-22 (SRS-22) Questionnaire. During the 10-week treatment period, the control group practiced PSSE, while the study group progressively studied cervical strengthening, cervical stabilization, and proprioceptive exercises along with PSSE. The study results showed that the study group including cervical exercises had more positive results in cervical sagittal balance compared to the group that only applied PSSE (p<0.05). It was observed that the craniovertebral angle increased with cervical exercises in the study group and therefore the contribution to the head and neck position increased. No change was observed in craniovertebral angle in the control group. In addition, more positive results were obtained in the cervical joint position sense error and deep cervical flexor endurance in the study group compared to the group that only applied PSSE(p<0.05). In conclusion, this study demonstrated that cervical exercises added to PSSE brought the head-neck position toward the midline, increased the craniovertebral angle and decreased joint position sense error by increasing head-neck awareness. Our study also demonstrated that cervical training added to PSSE improved quality of life and was more effective for neck-related pain complaints than PSSE alone. Further studies are needed to investigate the effects of cervical exercise training on scoliosis according to scoliosis classification.