Gender Differences Between Disability, Quality of Life, and Sedentary Behavior in Individuals with Chronic Non-Specific Neck Pain

Introduction: Chronic non-specific neck pain is a musculoskeletal disorder which may affect psychological well-being and work performance. Depression, anxiety, and limitations in daily and work activities may occur differently between genders in individuals with chronic non-specific pain. The main purpose of the present cross-sectional study was to investigate the differences between men and women with chronic non-specific neck pain in disability due to pain, quality of life, and sedentary behavior. Secondly, we investigated the intercorrelations between the three above measured variables in the total sample. Methods: Eighty patients (44 men and 36 women), aged 20–55 years (Μ = 33.55, SD = 11.16) with chronic non-specific neck pain in the last 3 years participated. They completed three validated questionnaires which measured neck disability pain, quality of life, and sedentary behavior with (a) the Neck Disability Index (NDI), (b) the quality-of-life EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D), and (c) the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), respectively. Gender comparisons with Kruskal–Wallis H tests and correlation analysis with Spearman r tests were performed between the above variables using SPSS 29.00. Results: Men reported (a) better quality of life (H = 16.14, p < 0.001), (b) lower pain-related disability (H = 13.96, p < 0.001), (c) more time spending in vigorous physical activity (H = 3.37, p < 0.05), (d) more time spending in moderate physical activity (H = 5.17, p < 0.05), and (e) more time spending in walking (H = 11.24, p < 0.001). A strong positive correlation was found between the NDI and the EQ-5D Index (r = 0.74, p = 0.002) and a negative correlation was found between NDI and the EQ-5D VAS (r = −0.65, p = 0.003). Discussion: The present findings reported that men have more time walking, and have lower disability due to neck pain than women, thus they have better quality of life than women with chronic non-specific neck pain.