The effect of aquatic exercise therapy on the pain, disability and gait parameters of women with chronic low back pain

Chronic low back pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal problems. This disease, in addition to causing pain and disability affects the gait parameters in patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of aquatic exercises therapy on the severity of pain, disability and Spatiotemporal parameters and kinetic of gait in women with chronic low back pain. Twenty-four women with chronic low back pain (with a mean age of 26.6 years) participated in this study. The exercise protocol was conducted in water for 8 weeks. The severity of pain and disability were measured by Quebec and Oswestry questionnaires respectively. gait parameters were evaluated using a foot pressure device. Aquatic exercises therapy significantly decreased pain and disability severity and significantly improved gait parameters in the experimental group (p≤0.05). Fore there more, the significant difference between the variables in the post-test was obtained between experimental and control groups (p≤0.05). No significant difference was observed between the pre-test and post-test comparisons in the control group (p≥0.05). Regarding the reduction of pain and disability and improvement of gait parameters after eight weeks’ intervention in experimental group, the use of this protocol is recommended to improve patients with chronic low back pain as a new method.