Exercise Participation and Clinical Characteristics of Desk-Based Workers with Chronic Non-Specific Neck Pain Exposed to Increased Ergonomic Risk: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Exercise-participating workers had significantly lower upper-extremity disability scores than non-exercisers.

• Participants reporting exercise participation had lower QuickDASH scores than non-exercisers (p = 0.003, d = -0.42).
• The effect size was small-to-moderate (Cohen's d = -0.42).
• This association held across all exploratory adjusted models.
• Participants reporting low-frequency exercise participation had lower QuickDASH scores than non-exercisers only in Model 4.

Exercise-participating workers had significantly higher body awareness scores than non-exercisers.

• Participants reporting exercise participation had higher BARQ total scores than non-exercisers (p = 0.023, d = 0.33).
• BARQ function scores were higher in the exercise group (p = 0.004).
• BARQ awareness scores were also higher in the exercise group (p = 0.033).
• The effect size for the BARQ total score difference was small (Cohen's d = 0.33).

Pain severity, perceived sagittal trunk appearance, and ergonomic risk were similar between exercising and non-exercising groups.

• No statistically significant differences were found between exercise participants and non-exercisers for pain severity.
• Perceived sagittal trunk appearance (KyphoTAPS) did not differ significantly between groups.
• Ergonomic risk as assessed by RULA scores did not differ significantly between groups.
• FDR-adjusted p-value threshold applied was p < 0.002 for correlation analyses.

Upper-extremity disability (QuickDASH) was strongly positively correlated with pain severity.

• QuickDASH scores were positively correlated with pain severity (rho = 0.636–0.727).
• This represents a strong correlation across the pain severity measures examined.
• FDR-adjusted p < 0.002 was applied to all correlation analyses.

Upper-extremity disability (QuickDASH) was negatively correlated with body awareness (BARQ total scores).

• QuickDASH scores were negatively correlated with BARQ total scores (rho = -0.477).
• This indicates that workers with higher body awareness reported lower upper-extremity disability.
• FDR-adjusted p < 0.002 was the significance threshold applied.

Ergonomic risk (RULA score) showed only a weak positive correlation with general neck pain.

• RULA scores showed a weak positive correlation with general neck pain (rho = 0.288).
• This correlation was statistically significant at the FDR-adjusted threshold of p < 0.002.
• Ergonomic risk was assessed using a video-call-based RULA method.

The study sample consisted of 250 desk-based workers with chronic non-specific neck pain and increased ergonomic risk, drawn from 512 screened individuals.

• Inclusion required pain severity ≥4/10 and a Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) score ≥3/7.
• 250 of 512 screened workers met eligibility criteria and were included.
• This was a cross-sectional study design.
• Physical activity was assessed using the IPAQ-SF (International Physical Activity Questionnaire – Short Form).