Comparison of the Effect of Barreausol and Pilates Exercises on Quality of Life of Women with Chronic Low Back Pain

Low back pain is one of the most common and costly medical problems and the main cause of absenteeism which is a common problem in today's society. The prevalence and cost of treatment is increasing significantly. There are many ways to treat low back pain but a convenient, useful and low cost method is the main need of today's societies. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to compare the effect of Barreausol and Pilates exercises on quality of life in women with chronic low back pain.

Thirty patients with chronic back pain were selected and randomly allocated into three 10-patients groups Barreausol (average age of 42 ± 7 years, height 160 ± 8 cm, and weight 62 ± 5.5 kg) Pilates (average age of 42.5 ± 5 years, height 159 ± 10 cm, and weight 61 ± 6 kg) control (average age of 42 ± 6 years, height 161 ± 11 cm, and weight 59.5 ± 7 kg).Subjects in the intervention group performed three 60-minute sessions each week for 8 weeks, but the control group did not participate in any of the therapeutic activities during this time and were only engaged in daily activities Subjects' quality of life was assessed using SF36 questionnaire before and after eight weeks. Inferential statistics analysis of variance for repeated data (ANOVA) was used to analyze the groups (p≤0.05).

The findings of the present study showed that both of the intervention methods significantly improved the quality of life of women with chronic low back pain (p≤0.05). However, in the control group no significant difference was observed (p>0.05). Overall, there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups (p≤0.05). The results also showed no significant difference between the two training methods (p>0.05).

Based on the findings of this study it can be concluded that Barreausol exercises and Pilates exercises can improve the quality of life and adverse effects of women with chronic low back pain so it can be definitely recommended as a suitable medicine for the treatment of chronic low back pain.