EFFECTIVENESS OF STABILITY BALL EXERCISES AND ERGONOMICS TRAINING IN PREGNANCY RELATED LOW BACK PAIN

Objective: to determine the effectiveness of stability ball exercises and ergonomics training to reduce pregnancy related low back pain. Methodology: A pretest-posttest, randomized clinical trial was conducted at Dr. Nousheen Nazir, gynaecology clinic in I-10/4 Islamabad, for a time period of 1 year. The participants with age criteria of 18-35 years and pregnant females up to 32 weeks were included in the study. Low back pain was assessed through Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). The level of significance was set at 95% CI (p≤0.05).Results: The mean age of the study participants was 26.48±4.54 years. Ergonomic training (ET) showed significant improvement in overall low back disability {X2(2) =24.58, W=0.53, p<0.001} but no significant improvement (p>0.05) observed from 0 to 2nd week and from 2nd to 4th week, large significant improvement was observed (p=0.005, r=0.59). Stability ball exercise showed large significant improvement {X2(2) =36.86, W=0.84, p<0.001} from 0 to 2nd week (p=0.000, r=0.84) and from 2nd to 4th week (p=0.000, r=0.77). There was moderate significant difference in overall ODI score between SBE and ET group after 2nd {19(9.5) vs 24(13), p=0.012, r=-0.37) and 4th week {9(10) vs 18(10), p=0.002, r=0.472}. Conclusion: Both protocols such as ergonomics training and balancing ball exercises were effective for pregnancy related low back pain. But stability ball exercises were more effective in reducing the disability.