Abstract need to be edited—The effect of using 8-week back brace on electromyography activity of young women with chronic back pain during walking

Abstract

Different braces are designed to stabilize the spinal column in terms of symptoms in spine. One of the common braces to treat back pains is lumbar supporting braces in design of which a support on erectus spine muscles is used to keep and support these muscles. This research aims to evaluate the effect of using 8-week back brace on electromyography activity of young women with chronic back pain during walking. Although some studies have evaluated the effect of back brace on muscle activities in patients with back pain, less have examined the EMG of the muscles during walking while using lumbosacral brace. In this semi-experimental research, the activity of erector spine muscles, abdominal erectus, abdominal external oblique, abdominal internal oblique of 22 women with chronic back pain was evaluated. These women were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group used back brace for eight weeks .Before and after using brace, the electromyography (EMG) activity was recorded in both groups. Independent t -test and correlated t -test were used to analyze the data. In experimental group, EMG activity of erector spine and abdominal erectus muscle in midstance of walking was significantly decreased after 8-week using brace ( P < 0.05). Also, there was a significant reduction in pain after using brace in experimental group ( P < 0.05) while in control group no significant change was observed ( P > 0.05). It can be concluded that using brace can reduce the activity of erector spine and abdominal erectus muscles in midstance of walking, and decreasing in back pain may be achieved. Examining kinematic and kinetic characteristics may more reveal the cause of efficacy of back brace in these patients.