Comparing Single Arm Military Press Test Performance in Females with and without Non-Specific Neck Pain

An observational study design was used for the study. A case-control type of observational study design was used. To find out the performance of single arm military press test (SAMP test) among the patient group with non-specific neck pain and healthy group of young females. The study was carried out on 60 females (mean age 22.93±2.25) selected from the campus of the Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, Haryana. The subjects were first screened for the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and then they were assigned into two groups: Group A-healthy females (n=30) and Group B female patients with nonspecific neck pain (n=30). The visual analog scale (VAS) score of maximum pain in last 24 h was noted before the inclusion of the patients in Group B. Patients with VAS more than 2 and <8 were included in Group B. The SAMP test was performed under supervision for both the groups. Data were analyzed using SPSS (21 version) and significance level was set at P≤0.01. No statistically significant difference was found in performance of SAMP test between the dominant hand and non-dominant hand of the normal group (t=0.008, P≤0.01). No statistically significant difference was found in performance of SAMP test between the dominant hand and non-dominant hand in Group B (t=0.0007, P≤0.01). However, statistically significant difference was found in performance of SAMP test for the dominant hand (t=4.24, P≤0.01) between Group A and Group B. Furthermore, statistically significant difference was found in performance of SAMP test for the non-dominant hand (t=1.2774, P≤0.01) between Group A and Group B on within group analysis (intra-group analysis). Performance of SAMP test was found to be better in healthy females when compared to nonspecific neck pain patients both for dominant and non-dominant hand. Thus, it was concluded that the SAMP test can be used as a performance-based measure to assess the upper limb disability among females with non-specific neck pain.