Effect of Exercise Therapy and Physiotherapy on Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain

Abstract

Background: The aim of present research is to compare the effects of exercise therapy and physiothe-rapy that are two common treatments for pain and disability in patients with chronic low back pain. Methods: In this research 30 patients with chronic low back pain (history of low back pain for at least 3 months) were selected. Patients allocated in two treatment groups: exercise therapy (n = 17) and physiotherapy (n = 13). Disability was evaluated using oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire (ODQ) and pain intensity was evaluated with the visual analog scale (VAS).Two groups underwent treatment for 6 weeks. Post-test was performed at the end of treatment period. Following collection of primary information and determination of different variable, covariance test with the variety factor (pre-test) in the level of α 0.05) but the difference in functional disability between two groups was significant (P < 0.03). Conclusion: Our results indicate that exercise therapy is better than physiotherapy for disability im-provement in patients with low back pain. Finally, this study recommends that exercise therapy can be an effective modality to management patients with chronic low back pain.

Keywords

• Chronic low back pain
• Exercise therapy
• Physiotherapy