RESEARCH REPORT PLATFORM PRESENTATION

THE EFFECT OF AN EXERCISE PROGRAM AND ERGONOMIC ADVICES IN LOW BACK PAIN: A RANDOMISED CLINICAL TRIAL IN NURSING POPULATION. Mohseni Bandpei M¹, Fakhri M², Bagheri Nessami M², Ahmad Shirvani M², Khalilian A¹, Shayesteh Azar M¹; ¹School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. ²School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences

PURPOSE: Annually, one third of work related injuries belongs to the musculoskeletal disorders and low back pain is the most commonly reported injury. There are many therapeutic interventions available in the treatment of low back pain, but the most effective treatment is yet to be demonstrated. The present study was designed to compare the effect of an exercise program and ergonomic advices in the treatment of chronic low back pain with adequate long term follow up. RELEVANCE: Back injuries are a major category of occupational injuries and nursing personnel have a higher prevalence and incidence rate of back injuries than most occupational groups in the healthcare sector as well as in all industries. This study determines how effective exercise programs and ergonomic advices could be in reducing the impact of low back pain in nursing staff. PARTICIPANTS: 236 registered nurses matched by age, gender and body mass index were randomly recruited for the purpose of this study. METHODS: Following ethical approval, a randomised controlled clinical trial was carried out to assess the effect of an exercise program and ergonomic advices in the treatment of low back pain. Participants were randomly divided into four groups. The first three groups were received different intervention (group 1, therapeutic exercise combined with ergonomic advices; group 2, therapeutic exercise only; and group 3, ergonomic advices only). The fourth group was given no intervention. Pain on visual analogue scale and disability on Oswestry low back disability questionnaire were measured at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after intervention. ANALYSIS: Descriptive analysis, a Repeated Measurements test, ANOVA and Dunet test were used to analyze data. RESULTS: Statistical analysis indicated that there was significant differences on pain and disability measurements in all instances using ANOVA (p < 0.001). A Repeated Measurements test showed significant improvements in the first three groups both on pain and disability following intervention (p < 0.01). No significant changes were found in the fourth group (control group) neither on pain nor disability scores at different period of follow up. Dunnet test revealed a significant difference between each first three group (group 1, 2 and 3) and the fourth group on pain and disability (p < 0.001 in both instances). CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that therapeutic exercise and ergonomic advices could be considered as effective approaches in the treatment of low back pain in nursing population. Therefore, more emphasis should be put on regular exercise and ergonomic advices in nursing population in order to prevent and control such a common and costly health problem. IMPLICATIONS: Exercise program and ergonomic advices may play an important role to reduce the prevalence and incidence of low back pain in nursing profession. KEYWORDS: Occupational injury; low back pain; nurses; ergonomic advice; exercise. FUNDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the Mazandaran Province Management and Planning Organisation for the financial support of this study. We would also like to thank the Vice-Chancellor for Research Affairs of the Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences for his contribution and kind support. CONTACT: Mohseni_bandpei@yahoo.com

ETHICS COMMITTEE: Medical Ethics Board at the Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences