The effect of chronic low back pain on daily living and fear-avoidance beliefs in working adults

Low back pain (LBP) has become one of the most influential musculoskeletal diseases of modern society. Exercise has been shown to be very effective in the treatment of chronic low back pain (CLBP). The goal of the study was to test the effect of two exercise intervention programmes (conservative and progressive-aggressive programmes) for 12 weeks on CLBP and their impact on the activities of daily living, and fear avoidance beliefs about physical activities and work-related activities. In total 22 participants were recruited for the study and randomly assigned to one of two exercise groups: 11 participants in the conservative exercise group and 11 in the progressive-aggressive group). The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), the Functional Rating Index (FRI), and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain measurement was completed by the participants pre- and post-test. There were no statistically significant differences at the 5% level between the conservative and progressive-aggressive programmes. In conclusion, the results from the present study indicate that both types of programmes have shown to be very effective in the improvement of daily living and fear avoidance beliefs. On the basis of the magnitude of improvement, an aggressive-progressive exercise programme may be a little more effective than a more conservative exercise programme.