Tactile acuity and active joint repositioning sense in individuals with and without chronic low back pain: a cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Background

Sensorimotor dysfunction, as measured by tactile acuity and active joint repositioning, has been identified as a contributing factor of chronic low back pain (CLBP). Existing research suggests that further research is necessary to improve the characterization of sensorimotor perception in patients with CLBP.

Objectives

The main aim is to investigate whether tactile acuity and repositioning errors differ between individuals with CLBP and controls without CLBP. A secondary aim was to investigate the association between age, body mass index (BMI) and physical activity, and tactile acuity and repositioning sense.

Methods

Cross-sectional study. Sixty-eight participants (36 with, 32 without CLBP) were examined. Two-Point Discrimination (TPD) test (four measures: horizontal and vertical run, left and right side) and Active Joint Reposition Sense (AJRS) test (2 directions: to flexion and to extension) were used.

Results

No differences were found for TPD (right horizontal run: p = .069; left horizontal run: p = .066; right vertical run: p = .933; left vertical run: p = .285) or AJRS (flexion: p = .792; extension: p = .956) between participants with and without CLBP. Older subjects had significantly worse tactile acuity (3 sites, p = .018, p = .004, p = .041) and worse repositioning sense (2 directions, p = .026, p = .040,) than younger subjects. Individuals with BMI ≥ 25 had significantly worse TPD compared to individuals with normal weight (2 sites, p = .028, p = .020).

Conclusions

Individuals with CLBP did not have impaired tactile and repositioning accuracy when compared to controls without CLBP. Future studies comparing sensorimotor performance should consider age and BMI as potential confounding factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Low back pain
• tactile acuity
• proprioception
• two-point discrimination test
• joint repositioning sense

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the participants, and the Head of the Faculty of Physiotherapy, University of A Coruna for providing the study facilities. We would like to thank Martín Fernández-Caridad and Iria Trillo for their help in measurement assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09593985.2024.2374468

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.