Prevalence of neck pain and correlation with associated risk factors among Hotel Management students. - A cross-sectional study

This study examines the prevalence of neck pain among hotel management students and its correlation with risk factors such as age, hand dominance, BMI, remarks, and working hours in the kitchen. In 2020, an estimated 203 million people globally suffered from neck pain, with a range of 163 to 253 million.

Our research, conducted across six institutes in DELHI NCR, focused on students aged 19-25, excluding those with post-neck surgery, cervical spondylitis, or in their first or second year. A sample size of 278 participants was used, calculated with Raosoft software to ensure a 95% confidence level and 5% margin of error.

The study measured neck disability and pain intensity using the Neck Disability Index and Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Results showed that 54.7% of participants had no pain, 27.7% had very mild pain, 7.2% had moderate pain, 7.2% had fairly severe pain, and 3.2% had very severe pain, with an average pain intensity of 0.77. In terms of neck disability, 39.2% reported no disability, 46.4% reported mild disability, 11.2% reported moderate disability, and 3.2% reported severe disability.

Overall, most participants experienced minimal to mild neck pain with a moderate impact on daily activities. The study found weak or non-significant correlations between neck pain and risk factors such as age, hand dominance, BMI, remarks, and working hours in the kitchen. Despite the high prevalence of neck pain affecting 35% of the students, these factors did not strongly correlate with the pain.