In spite of life extension with the development of medical technology, older people usually have more than two chronic diseases and low back pain (LBP) is one of major symptoms in the elderly. LBP results in difficulties in daily life, sleep disturban...
In spite of life extension with the development of medical technology, older people usually have more than two chronic diseases and low back pain (LBP) is one of major symptoms in the elderly. LBP results in difficulties in daily life, sleep disturbances, and decrease of the quality of life. Thus, it is necessary to develop suitable exercise for the elderly with LBP.
The purpose of this research is to investigate effects of barefoot walking on the sandy beach on pain, motor function, sleep satisfaction, and quality of life in the elderly with LBP.
This research is designed as a single blind, randomized, and control research. Thirty-two older people with LBP participate in this study. Barefoot walking (intervention group) and sneakers walking (control group) were carried out for 40 minutes, 3 times a week for 4 weeks.
Pain intensity was measured using visual analogue scale. Oswestry disability index was used to quantify disability by LBP, Berg balance scale and timed up and go test were used to assess static and dynamic balance abilities, respectively. Verran and snyder-halpern sleep scale was used to quantify sleep satisfaction and world health organization quality of life assessment instrument abbreviated version was used for quality of life measures.
Compared with the control group, the intervention group showed statistically significant differences in pain (p = 0.005), disability by LBP (p = 0.002), static balance ability (p = 0.003), dynamic balance ability (p = 0.002) and sleep satisfaction (p = 0.017). There was no statistically significant difference in the quality of life category between the two groups (p = 0.105).
Based on the above results, compared with the control group, barefoot walking on the sandy beach is more effective in reducing pain, improving low back pain, improving balance ability, improving dynamic balance and walking ability. Thus, barefoot walking on the sandy beach may be useful as an intervention for improvement of pain, motor function, and sleep in the elderly with LBP.
Keywords : Sandy Beach, Barefoot Walking, Low Back Pain, Motor
Function, Sleep, Quality of Life