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<article xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" dtd-version="1.0" article-type="healthcare" lang="en"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">IJCRR</journal-id><journal-id journal-id-type="nlm-ta">I Journ Cur Res Re</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title>International Journal of Current Research and Review</journal-title><abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="pubmed">I Journ Cur Res Re</abbrev-journal-title></journal-title-group><issn pub-type="ppub">2231-2196</issn><issn pub-type="opub">0975-5241</issn><publisher><publisher-name>Radiance Research Academy</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">3563</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="doi"/><article-id pub-id-type="doi-url">http://dx.doi.org/10.31782/IJCRR.2021.SP180</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>Healthcare</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>Influence of Protective Mask on Cervical Spine Dysfunction during COVID-19 Pandemic&#13;
</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>K</surname><given-names>Ramana</given-names></name></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>A</surname><given-names>Kumaresan</given-names></name></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Suganthirababu</surname><given-names>Prathap</given-names></name></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Alagesan</surname><given-names>Jagatheesan</given-names></name></contrib></contrib-group><pub-date pub-type="ppub"><day>30</day><month>03</month><year>2021</year></pub-date><volume>rn</volume><issue>ch</issue><fpage>50</fpage><lpage>52</lpage><permissions><copyright-statement>This article is copyright of Popeye Publishing, 2009</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2009</copyright-year><license license-type="open-access" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><license-p>This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You may share and adapt the material, but must give appropriate credit to the source, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made.</license-p></license></permissions><abstract><p>Introduction: World health organization recommends protective mask as a primary preventive measure to offbeat the Covid-19 pandemic. There are many commercially available protective masks, in that N-99, N-95, and 3 layer surgical masks are com monly used among peoples. Prolonged usage of this protective mask can cause forward neck posture and weakness of cervical flexors muscles. Objective: The objective of this study is to find out the influence of the protective mask on cervical spine dysfunction. Methods: An observational study was conducted by screening 237 participants; in that 110 participants were enrolled for the study based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. All these participants were categorized based on the type of protective mask and underwent forward neck posture assessment by using the Cranio-vertebral angle through Kinovean software and cervical flexor muscle endurance test. Results: The mean value of the Cranio-vertebral angle is 42.64 and cervical flexor endurance is 8.5 for the participants using N-99 protective mask, the mean value of the Cranio-vertebral angle is 65.866 and cervical flexor endurance is 19.911 for the participants using N-95 protective mask and the mean value of the Cranio-vertebral angle is 72.193 and cervical flexor endur ance is 27.49 for the participants using 3- layer surgical mask. Conclusion: The analyzed results prove that patients using N99 type of protective mask reported decreased cervical muscle endurance and Cranio-vertebral angle when compared to N95 and 3 layers protective mask.&#13;
</p></abstract><kwd-group><kwd>Cervical neck muscle endurance</kwd><kwd> COVID – 19</kwd><kwd> Cranio-vertebral angle</kwd><kwd> Protective mask</kwd></kwd-group></article-meta></front></article>
