EFFECTS OF LATISSIMUS DORSI STRETCHING ON FUNCTIONAL DISABILITY RELATED TO CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN

Abstract

Objective: To determine effects of latissimus dorsi stretching on functional disability related to chronic low back pain. Methodology: A single group pretest-posttest design trial was conducted in NOSIS clinics Mansehra Pakistan. Patients with the age between 20-60 years had chronic mechanical low back pain lasting for 7-12 weeks were included in the study. A total of n=64 randomly divided into experimental and control group, those received stabilization exercises (SE) plus latissimus dorsi stretching (LDS) and stabilization exercises alone respectively. Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) was used to determine functional disability. The level of significance was set at 95% CI (p≤0.05). Results: A total of n=61 participants participated in the study. The mean age of the study participants was 39.60 ± 10.02 and sitting time was 6.54± 1.23. It was observed that both the experimental group {p<0.001, ɳp2=0.934} and control group {p<0.001, ɳp2=0.875} significantly improved the ODI score with large effect size after 4 weeks of intervention. However, between the comparison showed significant improvement with large effect size in experimental group as compared to control group, after first week (p<0.001), and 2nd week (p<0.001) of intervention. Conclusion: the combination of spinal stabilization exercises and stretching of latissimus dorsi effective in improving functional disability related to chronic low back pain.

Keywords

• chronic mechanical low back pain
• spinal stabilization exercises
• stretching of latissimus dorsi muscle