Effectiveness of Pelvic Tilt Exercises in Patients with Pregnancy-Related Low Back Pain; Quasi-Experimental Study

Abstract

Background: Low back pain has been recognized as the leading and the most common complaint during the entire gestational tenure. The pelvic joints are mostly considered to be very stable joints, however, in response to the growing baby and preparing the mother’s body for delivery the ligaments stabilizing these joints get loose. During pregnancy, various physiotherapy exercises play an important role in maintaining normal posture, and muscle and preventing the onset of low back pain. Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the short-term and long-term effectiveness of pelvic tilt exercises in patients with pregnancy-related low back pain. Methods: The data for this quasi-experimental study was collected from the Gynecology OPD and gynecology ward of the district hospital, Bahawalpur. The sample size of this study was calculated to be n=25. A total of 25 patients with pregnancy-related low back pain in 3rd trimester were recruited in this study. Pregnant females who were obese, who had a weight gain of more than 25 kilograms and less than 10 kilograms were not recruited in our study. Our current study started after the approval from the Advanced Study and Research Committee of the University of Health Sciences, Lahore. Non-probability convenient sampling was used for sampling. The patients were randomly allocated to group 1 or group 2. The results of this study were analyzed using a statistical package for social sciences version 23. Paired sample t-test was applied for statistical analysis to find out pre and post-test differences. The p-value was 0.000 which shows that the results are statistically significant. Results: The result of this study shows that there was a decrease in the scores of the visual analog scale and Oswestry low back pain disability index in the pre and post-test of both the groups, undergoing short-term and long-term exercises. Conclusion: The results of this study conclude that pelvic tilt exercises show positive short-term and long-term effectiveness in patients with pregnancy-related low back pain. The severity of the low back pain tends to decrease with pelvic tilt exercises in pregnant females with low back pain.