Effects of core muscle stability on low back pain and quality of life in post- menopausal women: A comparative study.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of core stability exercises on backache and quality of life of postmenopausal women. METHODS: he comparative study was conducted at the Department of Physical Therapy, Margalla General Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from February to June 2018, and comprised post-menopausal woman aged 40-60 years having backache who were randomly divided into experimental group A and control group B. Group A underwent core stability exercises along with traditional therapy, while group B had traditional low backache physical therapy. Each participant was treated three days a week for 12 weeks. The outcome was assessed using the manual muscle testing numerical pain rating scale, Oswestry disability index and Utian quality of life scale at baseline, week 6 and week 12. Data was analysed using SPSS 21. RESULTS: Of the 35 subjects initially enrolled, 24(68.5%) completed the study. Of them, 14(58.3%) cases were in group A and 10(41.6%) controls in group B. The overall mean age was 54.54±5.13 years, mean menopause duration was 99.79±50.02 months, and mean duration of backache complaint was 23.95±14.85 months. Differences in outcome were significant between the groups for flexion and extension manual muscle testing and Utian quality of life scale (p<0.05) and non-significant for numerical pain rating scaleand Oswestry disability index (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Core stability exercises were found to have the ability to reduce pain, disability and to improve strength and quality of life.