The Effect of Active Rehabilitation on the Functional Ability and Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Low back pain is one of the areas of body and mind interaction. Treatment of chronic low back pain by active rehabilitation included training of social-psychological skills along with therapeutic experiences, which has been increasingly supported in recent years. The aim of the present research was to determine the effect of active rehabilitation on the functional ability and quality of life in patient with chronic low back pain. Methods: This study is experimental with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population was all patients with chronic low back pain who were referred to physiotherapy clinics of Ardabil city in 2012. Thirteen subjects with chronic low back pain were selected conveniently and assigned randomly to two groups of experimental and control (each n=15). Data collection was performed using pain coping inventory, physical activity indicator, Quality of Life questionnaire of the World Health Organization, and musculoskeletal complaints indicator. The intervention method in this research was active rehabilitation treatment, which was implemented in 10-30 sessions of 30 minutes each. The research data were analyzed using multivariable analysis of variance (MANOVA) on the differences between the scores of pretest and posttest variables. Results: In this study, active rehabilitation was effective in the improvement of physical activity, quality of life, increase in cognitive-behavior strategies, and decrease in pain symptoms. Conclusion: The findings of this research indicate that active rehabilitation is effective in functional ability and quality of life of patients with chronic low back pain.

Keywords

• rehabilitation
• quality of life
• low back pain