Abstract
M.Tech. (Chiropractic)
Aim: The aim was to determine whether a combination of chiropractic manipulation and therapeutic elastic taping in the management of rhomboid trigger points would yield an improved outcome, as opposed to the application of either therapy exclusively. Methodology:The study comprised of three groups of ten participants who met the inclusion criteria. The participants were placed randomly into the three groups. The 30 participants included 11 males and 19 females, who were between the ages of 18 - 40, who had active rhomboid trigger points. The first group of participants received chiropractic manipulation only, the second group received therapeutic elastic taping only and the third group received a combination of therapeutic elastic taping and chiropractic manipulation. Participants were seen for seven consultations, that is twice a week for three weeks and the seventh consult was for data collection only. Subjective data was collected in the form of a Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) which measured the pain intensity. Objective data was collected using a Pressure Algometer, on the first, fourth and seventh consultations. Procedure: The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to test for normality.Non-parametric methods were used to analyse the subjective and objective data, intra-group analysis Friedman and the Wilcoxon-signed rank tests were used to detect significant changes within each group and where these changes occurred. Inter-group analysis was conducted using the Kruskal-wallis test, which allowed comparison between the three groups. Results:With regards to the NPRS, in the Friedman test, all three groups had a p -value of 0.000 which indicates that each of the three groups had statistically significant changes in the NPRS scores over time. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test was able to detect differences between the first and fourth consultation and between the fourth and seventh consultations as well as between the seventh and first consultation. This test showed a significant difference of p≤0.05 between the first and fourth consultations as well as between the first and the seventh consultations. The inter-group analyses revealed p>0.05 which indicated that the was no significant difference between the three groups
For the pressure algometer data collected, all three groups had p=0.00 with regards to Friedman’s test meaning that individually all three groups had statistically significant improvements over time. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test showed that there were significant differences between the first and fourth consultations as well as between the first and seventh consultations as the p value was p≤0.05. Comparison between the groups showed that all three group had similar results over time as the p value was p>0.05...