The effect of aquatic exercise program on low-back pain disability in obese women

Low-back pain (LBP) is one of the most current causes to reduce work performance, limit daily activities and raising health cost, and it is in-creasing as obesity growing as a public health concern. While obese LBP people cannot avoid weight load on the spine in any exercise, they can easily carry out exercise in water. This study aimed to investigate the effect of aquatic exercise on LBP disability among obese women. In this study, a total of 39 women with body mass index (BMI)≥27 kg/m² who suffering from nonspecific chronic LBP were purposively selected. They randomly assigned in two groups; aquatic and control. The aquatic group carried out aquatic exercise, twice per week, 60 min per session, for 12 weeks. LBP disability was measured using modified Oswestry questionnaire with ten sections; pain intensity, personal care, lifting, walking, sitting, standing, sleeping, social life, traveling, and employment. Results showed no significant difference in age, weight, BMI, waist to hip ratio, and percentage of body fat in both groups. An analyzing of multivariate analysis of covariance revealed that there was significant improvement on pain intensity, personal care, sitting, standing, sleeping, employment and total disability score in aquatic group, while there was no significant difference in lifting, walking, social life, and traveling abilities after 12 weeks between the groups. As a conclusion, this progressive aquatic exercise was a convenience and effective intervention program to reduce pain intensity, and improve personal care, sitting, standing, sleeping, and employment abilities in obese LBP women.