<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Articles JournalTitle="Iranian Journal of Public Health">
  <Article>
    <Journal>
      <PublisherName>Tehran University of Medical Sciences</PublisherName>
      <JournalTitle>Iranian Journal of Public Health</JournalTitle>
      <Issn>2251-6085</Issn>
      <Volume>54</Volume>
      <Issue>12</Issue>
      <PubDate PubStatus="epublish">
        <Year>2025</Year>
        <Month>12</Month>
        <Day>31</Day>
      </PubDate>
    </Journal>
    <title locale="en_US">Efficacy of Neck Stretching Exercises in Mitigating Neck Pain and Self-Reported Disability Post-Thyroidectomy:  A Meta-Analysis</title>
    <FirstPage>2548</FirstPage>
    <LastPage>2556</LastPage>
    <AuthorList>
      <Author>
        <FirstName>Rong</FirstName>
        <LastName>Li</LastName>
        <affiliation locale="en_US">Nursing Department, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, Haizhu District, 510275, China</affiliation>
      </Author>
      <Author>
        <FirstName>Shuiying</FirstName>
        <LastName>Chen</LastName>
        <affiliation locale="en_US">Nursing Department, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, Haizhu District, 510275, China</affiliation>
      </Author>
      <Author>
        <FirstName>Xuejing</FirstName>
        <LastName>Yue</LastName>
        <affiliation locale="en_US">Nursing Department, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, Haizhu District, 510275, China</affiliation>
      </Author>
      <Author>
        <FirstName>Peiliang</FirstName>
        <LastName>Lin</LastName>
        <affiliation locale="en_US">E.N.T. Department, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, Haizhu District, 510275, China</affiliation>
      </Author>
      <Author>
        <FirstName>Haiyan</FirstName>
        <LastName>Lin</LastName>
        <affiliation locale="en_US">Nursing Department, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, Haizhu District, 510275, China</affiliation>
      </Author>
      <Author>
        <FirstName>Duo</FirstName>
        <LastName>Tao</LastName>
        <affiliation locale="en_US">Nursing Department, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, Haizhu District, 510275, China</affiliation>
      </Author>
    </AuthorList>
    <History>
      <PubDate PubStatus="received">
        <Year>2025</Year>
        <Month>05</Month>
        <Day>03</Day>
      </PubDate>
      <PubDate PubStatus="accepted">
        <Year>2025</Year>
        <Month>06</Month>
        <Day>07</Day>
      </PubDate>
    </History>
    <abstract locale="en_US">Background: We aimed to forecast the efficacy of neck stretching exercises in mitigating self-reported disability post-thyroidectomy and neck pain.
Methods: Until Feb 2025, an inclusive literature study was accomplished, and 654 related studies were reviewed. The 5 nominated studies encompassed 654 patients with thyroidectomy at the beginning of the study and were selected for the meta-analysis. The mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to examine the outcome of the neck stretching exercises compared to control on thyroidectomy using continuous methods with either a fixed or random model.
Results: In cases with thyroidectomy, neck stretching exercises had significantly lower mean neck pain score after 1 week (P=0.001), mean neck pain score after 1 month (P=0.01), mean self-reported neck disability score after 1 month (P&lt;0. 001) compared to control treatment. Nonetheless, no significant difference was detected between neck stretching exercises and control treatment in mean self-reported neck disability score after 1 week (P=0.06) in patients with thyroidectomy. In patients with thyroidectomy, neck stretching exercises had significantly lower mean neck pain score after 1 week, and after 1 month, and mean self-reported neck disability score after 1 month, however, no significant difference was found in mean self-reported neck disability score after 1 week compared to control treatment.
Conclusion: More research is necessary to confirm this discovery, and care must be used while interacting with its values since many comparisons had a low number of included articles and a small sample size of most of the selected studies.</abstract>
    <web_url>https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/view/38988</web_url>
    <pdf_url>https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/download/38988/8717</pdf_url>
  </Article>
</Articles>
