The Effects of Rehabilitation Programs Incorporating Breathing Interventions on Chronic Neck Pain Among Patients with Forward Head Posture: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Abstract

The effectiveness of breathing interventions on postural alignment, pain reduction, and functional improvement in patients with forward head posture (FHP) and chronic neck pain remains uncertain. Previously conducted randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that involved breathing interventions were identified through searches of the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. Studies were included if they applied diaphragmatic breathing, breathing muscle training, or feedback breathing exercises for at least 2 weeks to chronic neck pain (duration ≥ 3 months) and/or forward head posture. The craniovertebral angle (CVA), the visual analog scale (VAS), and the neck disability index (NDI) were the primary outcome measures. The results showed that breathing interventions had a moderate effect size in terms of improving the CVA. Limited effects were observed for pain reduction, and improvements in neck disability approached statistical significance. However, despite these positive findings, the overall evidence was rated as 'very low certainty' in the GRADE assessment, primarily due to high heterogeneity among studies, limited sample sizes, and the potential for unit-of-analysis errors in diagnosis-based subgroup analyses. Consequently, their overall effectiveness in chronic neck pain was limited. Future research is needed to explore a multidisciplinary approach to neck pain using standardized protocols and larger samples.