This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of education to keep the abdomen relaxed versus contracted during Pilates exercises in patients with primary chronic low back pain. Participants will be randomised into two groups that will be treated with Pilates exercises for 12 weeks. The control group will receive guidance on the specific activation of the center of strength (the powerhouse), while the experimental group will receive guidance to perform the exercises in a relaxed and smooth way. Primary outcomes will be pain intensity and disability 12 weeks post randomisation.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
152
Participants will be randomised into two groups that will be treated with Pilates exercises for 12 weeks (twice a week for 60 minutes). The control group will receive guidance on the specific activation of the center of strength (the powerhouse), while the experimental group will receive guidance to perform the exercises in a relaxed and smooth way.
Centro Universitário Augusto Motta
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Pain intensity
Pain intensity will be obtained through self-report by the Brazilian version of the 11-point Numerical Pain Scale (NPS) (Costa et al., 2008; Vigotsky et al., 2021), which varies between 0 and 10 points, where 0 is "no pain" and 10 is "the worst pain imaginable" where individuals should report pain intensity based on the last 7 days.
Time frame: 12 weeks post randomisation
Disability related
Disability will be obtained through self-report by the Brazilian version of the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) (Nusbaum et al., 2001), which has 24 statements involving activities and pain situations, to which the patient is instructed to answer "yes" only to those described in the assessment day, and each answer corresponds to one point.
Time frame: 12 weeks post randomisation
Perception of global improvement
Perception of global improvement will be obtained through self-report by the Perception of Global Effect Scale (PGES), 11 points ranging from -5 ("much worse"), 0 ("no change") to +5 (completely recovered) (Costa et al., 2008). For all measures of perceived global effect participants will be asked: "Compared to the start of your first episode, how do you describe your low back pain in the past few days?". A highly positive score indicates greater recovery, while a negative score indicates worsening of symptoms.
Time frame: 12 weeks post randomisation
Specific functionality
Specific functionality will be obtained through self-report by the Patient-specific functional scale (PSFS) (Costa et al., 2008), which consists of an interview in which the patient chooses three important activities whose execution is difficult or impossible due to low back pain. For each activity, a score of difficulty ranges from 0 (unable to perform) to 10 (able to perform at the same level as before the problem).
Time frame: 12 weeks post randomisation
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