Effectiveness of lumbar stabilization exercises for reducing chronic low back pain and improving quality-of-life

[Purpose] Therapeutic exercise for chronic low back pain is one of the most important conservative treatments. Recently, lumbar stabilization exercise focused on deep trunk muscles has attracted considerable attention. This study investigated the effectiveness of lumbar stabilization exercises for treating CLBP. [Subjects] The subjects were 18 patients with CLBP. CLBP was defined as pain that persisted for more than 3 months. [Methods] The therapeutic exercises involved the abdominal drawing-in maneuver (hereafter referred to as "drawing-in") and prone kneeling (hereafter referred to as "hand-knee"). The exercises were performed during a 3-month intervention period. Pain was evaluated using a Visual Analog Scale (hereafter referred to as "VAS"), while quality-of-life (hereafter referred to as "QOL") was estimated using the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Examination Questionnaire (hereafter referred to as "JOABPEQ"). Pain and QOL were assessed prior to the intervention (T0), and at one (T1), three (T3), and six months (T6) after the intervention. The Steel-Dwass test was used to investigate differences between values prior to and after performance of the therapeutic exercise regime. Significance was defined as p<0.05. [Results] The median low back pain value was significantly improved at T3 and T6 compared to T0. At T1, patients reported significant improvement in the lumbar functions score in comparison with T0. This change was still observed at T3 and T6. At T3, scores of all items had significantly increased. At T6, the changes in low back pain score and walking ability score were no longer significant, however their tendencies remained. [Conclusions] These results suggest that performance of lumbar stabilization exercises is an effective method for improving comfort and QOL of patients with CLBP.