J Korean Acad Womens Health Nurs.  2001 Jun;7(2):169-187.

The Effect of Exercise Program on Chronic Low Back Pain in Female Teachers of Elementary School

• Choi SY

Abstract

This study was performed to probe the effect of exercise program on muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, pain, disability level and life satisfaction in female teachers of elementary school who complain of low back pain. For this study, 44 female teachers aged 30-50 years with mechanical low back pain of 6 months' duration, who had the structural normalities in the lumbar spine, were recruited from April 1 to July 10 1999. Twenty three out of them were assigned to the experimental group and twenty one to the control group. The exercise program consisted of education on right postures, the etiology and diagnosis of low back pain, and exercise intervention such as muscle relaxation, elongation and strengthening. With 8 weeks program, the subjects received two sessions of education and six sessions of group exercise in the 1st week, while three sessions of group exercise and four sessions of individual exercise weekly and two sessions of education during the later 7 weeks. The muscle strength and endurance were measured by Cybex 770, the flexibility by flexibility measurement machine, the intensity of pain by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), the level of disability by Oswestry low back pain disability scale, depression by Beck depression inventory (BDI), and life satisfaction by Life satisfaction index-Z. Study measurements were taken before and after 8 weeks exercise program. Data were analyzed using paired t-test, t-test, and ANCOVA. The results were as follows ; 1. The flexors and extensors peak torque and flexors peak torque per body weight of experimental group were significantly increased at test velocities 30degrees/sec, 60degrees/sec compared with those of control group. There was no significant difference in extensors peak torque per flexors peak torque at 30degrees/sec, 60degrees/sec between experimental and control group. 2. The flexors and extensors total work and flexors total work per body weight of experimental group were significantly increased at 120degrees/sec, compared with those of control group. 3.The flexibility of lumbar spine in experimental group was significantly increased compared with that of control group. The pains in anterior, posterior, left lateral and right lateral bending and in rotation of experimental group were significantly increased compared with those of control group. 4.The Oswestry disability scores of experimental and control group were significantly decreased, and there was no difference in the Oswestry disability score change between experimental and control group. 5. The scores of BDI of experimental group were significantly decreased compared with those of control group. Life satisfaction index-Z scores of experimental group were not changed, but those of control group were significantly decreased. There was no difference in the score change of Life satisfaction index-Z between experimental and control group. 6. ANCOVA analysis for the data variables of inhomogeneous baseline represented that there was no significant difference in extensors peak torque and extensors total work at 120degrees/sec and extensor total work per body weight at 120degrees/sec change between experimental group and control group. These findings indicate that the exercise program could be effective in increasing the muscle strength, endurance, flexibility and decreasing pain, improving depression in female teachers of elementary school with chronic low back pain. It is suggested that the exercise program could be an essential factor for the effective nursing intervention to the patients suffered from chronic low back pain.

MeSH Terms

Body Weight
Climacteric
Depression
Diagnosis
Education
Female*
Humans
Low Back Pain*
Muscle Relaxation
Muscle Strength
Nursing
Pliability
Posture
Spine
Torque