Effects of integrating Neurac vibration into a side-lying bridge exercise on a sling in patients with chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled study

ABSTRACT

Purpose

This study examined the effects of integrated Neurac vibration during side-lying bridge exercise using a sling system on pain, strength, and balance in patients with chronic low back pain (LBP). Subjects and Methods: A total of 30 patients were randomly assigned to experimental (EG; n = 15) or control groups (CG; n = 15). Both groups performed side-lying bridge exercise; however, the EG group also received Neurac vibration during exercise. Outcome measures included perceived pain level, asymmetry of weight distribution, asymmetry of hip abductor strength (AHAS), and static balance in one-leg standing. A 2 × 2 repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to determine main effects and interaction for each parameter. Results: Significant interaction effects were found between group and time factors for all parameters. Between-group comparisons revealed significant differences in observed changes for all parameters (P < 0.05). In within-group comparisons, EG showed significant changes in all parameters after intervention (P < 0.05); however, significant changes were only found for pain and AHAS in the CG (P < 0.05). Pain score showed greatest effect size (d = 0.77) among all parameters, indicating a moderate effect of intervention. Conclusion: The side-lying bridge exercise on a sling system may alleviate pain and improve strength and balance in patients with chronic LBP, with more favorable effects when Neurac vibration is integrated into the exercise plan.

KEYWORDS:

• Low back pain
• side-lying bridge
• vibration
• sling

Declaration of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Daejeon University Research Grants (2016)