Influence of Protective Mask on Cervical Spine Dysfunction during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: World health organization recommends protective mask as a primary preventive measure to offbeat the Covid-19 pandemic There are many commercially available protective masks, in that N-99, N-95, and 3 layer surgical masks are com-monly used among peoples Prolonged usage of this protective mask can cause forward neck posture and weakness of cervical flexors muscles Objective: The objective of this study is to find out the influence of the protective mask on cervical spine dysfunction Methods: An observational study was conducted by screening 237 participants;in that 110 participants were enrolled for the study based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria All these participants were categorized based on the type of protective mask and underwent forward neck posture assessment by using the Cranio-vertebral angle through Kinovean software and cervical flexor muscle endurance test Results: The mean value of the Cranio-vertebral angle is 42 64 and cervical flexor endurance is 8 5 for the participants using N-99 protective mask, the mean value of the Cranio-vertebral angle is 65 866 and cervical flexor endurance is 19 911 for the participants using N-95 protective mask and the mean value of the Cranio-vertebral angle is 72 193 and cervical flexor endurance is 27 49 for the participants using 3-layer surgical mask Conclusion: The analyzed results prove that patients using N99 type of protective mask reported decreased cervical muscle endurance and Cranio-vertebral angle when compared to N95 and 3 layers protective mask Copyright@IJCRR