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

Abstract

To determine the effects of core stability exercises on backache and quality of life of postmenopausal women. 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. 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). Core stability exercises were found to have the ability to reduce pain, disability and to improve strength and quality of life.