Effect of stabilization exercise on pain and quality of life of patients with non-specific chronic low back pain

Abstract

Patients with chronic low back pain have lower quality of life compared to patients with other chronic diseases and the general population. This study was designed to assess the effect of stabilization exercises on the quality of life of patients with non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP).

A total of 23 patients with NSCLBP, aged 27-65 years, participated in this study. They were recruited from the Orthopaedic Clinic of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos, Nigeria. They were put through core stabilization exercises twice weekly for 4 consecutive weeks and assessed with the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHO QoL) questionnaire and Verbal Rating Scale (VRS) at baseline and at four weeks post-treatment intervention. Ethical approval was sought and obtained from the Health Research and Ethics Committee of LUTH. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17, and the level of significance was set at p < 0.05.

Patients recorded significant reduction in pain severity following intervention (p= 0.01). There was also significant improvement in the quality of life domains (psychological health and social relationship) (p=0.01) post intervention, and only age correlated directly with social relationship of the quality of life domain (r=0.59, p=0.01).

This study concluded that stabilization exercises reduced pain and improved the psychological health as well as social relationship domains of the quality of life of patients with non-specific chronic low back pain.

Keywords: stabilization, quality of life, non-specific low back pain