Jornal de Yoga e Fisioterapia
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Effect of Physical Activity on Functional Status in Elderly with Chronic Low Back Pain

Tsatsakos George Kouli Olga, Michalopoulou Maria, Malliou Paraskevi and Godolias George

Background: Pain in the lumbar spine is a symptom most frequently met in declining years.

Objective: Even though the increase of physical activity has beneficial results in the organism’s functions, a limited number of surveys exist that studied its effect on the functional status of the elderly with chronic low back pain.

Methods: The ODI self – report questionnaire and the functional tests “chair stand” and “turn up and go”, have been used for the assessment of the functional status of the 49 older adults with chronic low back pain that completed the study.

Results: An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed to compare the difference between the control and the physical activity group. Both groups showed no significant differences between pre and post intervention levels on the scores provided by the ODI, “chair stand” test and “turn up and go” test.

Conclusions: The increase of physical activity at the levels of healthy population via free day living walking shows that it has no effect in the functional status of the elderly with chronic low back pain.