Comparison lower limb joints stiffness in chronic low back pain patients with healthy people while walking

Introduction: Lower back pain is an orthopedic disease that affects up to 80% of people throughout their lifetime. It seems that the pattern of muscular activity is related to the components of earthquake photography and should be considered when evaluating back pain and its treatment. The aim of this study was to compare the three-dimensional lower limb joints stiffness during loading response, mid stance, push off and entire of stance phase in low back pain patients and healthy control ones while walking. Methods: This study was a semi-experimental.15 men with low back pain as an experimental group (age 25.3±2.9years) and 15 healthy men as a control group (age 26±2.9 years), were volunteered to participate in the study. Four cameras with a frequency of 100 Hz were used to quantify gait kinematic and also a force plate was used to record the ground reaction force components. Independent sample t-test with significance level of 0.05 was used for statistical analysis. Results: Hip joint stiffness during loading response in horizontal plane (P=0.029), at mid stance phase in sagittal (P=0.009) and horizontal planes (P=0.004) and also entire stance phase in sagittal (P=0.004) and horizontal (P=0.029) planes in the low back pain group, was lower than the healthy group. In the knee joint, stiffness values during mid-stance (P=0.028) and push of (P=0.011) phases in frontal plane and at entire stance phase in sagittal (P=0.000) and frontal (P=0.000) planes in experimental group were greater than that control group. In the ankle joint, stiffness value during mid-stance phase in sagittal plane (P=0.022) in experimental group was lower than that healthy control group. Conclusions: Due to decreased stiffness of the hip joints and increased knee and ankle joint stiffness in low back pain patients compared to healthy control ones, the design of therapeutic interactions such as athletic exercises to reinforce ankle invertor muscles, shank and thigh external rotators and abdominal muscles to improve these variables in patients with low back pain.