QIGONG VERSUS USUAL EXERCISE IN THE TREATMENT OF CLBP AS ADD ON TO A STADARDISED PHYSIOTHERAPY PROGRAMME

T. Plavoukou¹, S. Sotiropoulos¹, D. Stasinopoulos¹, G. Papathanasiou¹, G. Georgoudis¹

¹University of West Attica, Physiotherapy, Athens, Greece

Background: Low back pain is a very common health problem and a major cause for disability. When the duration of pains exceeds twelve weeks it is characterized as chronic Low Back Pain (cLBP). The prevalence of the disease has been found to even exceed 20% in some studies and hashigh direct and indirect cost for the health system. There is also a number of comorbidities mostly psychosocial that have been linked with this disease. In the last years there have been growing evidence showing that exercise can be beneficial in patients with cLBP. Qigong, is a holistic system of coordinated body posture and movement, with simultaneous breath control and meditation, is an important part of traditional Chinese medicine. Even though this form of exercise is popular in the treatment of cLBP there only a few studies investigating its effectiveness.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of standardized physiotherapy treatment and an add on modified Qigong exercise programme to standardized physiotherapy treatment and a usual add on exercise programme in patients suffering from cLBP.

Methods: The study was designed as a double blind randomized controlled trial, involving 42 people aged 18-65 with chronic non-specific low back pain. The study had two experimental groups: a group of standardised physiotherapy with additional strengthening exercises (Ν=21) and a group of standardised physiotherapy with additional modified Qigong exercises (Ν=21). The intervention program lasted for 4 weeks. The duration of the intervention was one hour per treatment session and the frequency of the sessions was twice a week for a total of 8 treatment sessions. The result of the interventions were evaluated and compared with each other in terms of their effectiveness on the following parameters: pain, proprioception, disability and kinesiophobia, with respective measuring tools the short form of McGill Questionnaire, the sway length test, the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire and the Tampa scale of Kinesiophobia.

Results: ANOVA and Linear Mixed Models measures were used to test for differences between the groups. The level of statistical significance was set at p=0.05. Both treatment groups showed statistically significant difference when compared to baseline values in all measuements (p<0,001). However, between group comparisons did not show statistically significant differences in any of the measurementw. Qigong was borderline not statistically significant different in the measurement of Kinesiophobia (p=o,o69).

Conclusions: This study shows that modified qigong exercises are of equal effectiveness to usually prescribed exercise programmes in the treatment of cLBP not only regarding pain but in some of the comorbidities most commonly associated with the disease.

Implications: Findings of this study show that Qigong exercises are useful in the treatment of cLBP and can be a viable alternative in every day clinical practice. Furthermore, further research might be helpful to investigate whether this type of exercise might be more helpful in certain patient subgroups.

Funding acknowledgements: N/A

Keywords:
Qigong
Exercise
Chronic Low Back Pain

Topics:
Musculoskeletal: spine
Pain & pain management

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School

Committee: Aretaieion Hospital Ethics Committee

Ethics number: 266/12-11-2020