Effects of a Mat Pilates Exercise Program on Elderly Women With Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain

VAS is a card with an uncalibrated scale ranging from 0-100mm on the one side with each millimeter representing one pain level (0 representing no pain and 100 representing the worst pain in life). The patient subjectively estimated their pain level by marking a vertical line on the uncalibrated scale between 0 and 100.

Then the exact value of pain intensity could be obtained with a single ruler. Hence, the higher the value, the more intense the pain. VAS is widely used as it is easy to implement and is characterized by good psychometric propert

Disability associated with low back pain in the last 24 hours will be assessed using the Greek version of the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (Boscainos et al., 2003). This questionnaire has showed good test -retest reliability with intraclass correlation (ICC) ranging from 0.42 to 0.91 (Macedo et al., 2010), while Boscainos (2003), reports that the internal consistency reliability for the Greek version reached a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.885. This questionnaire consists of 24 items that are related to daily activities which patients often report difficulty performing due to low back pain. Every positive answer earns a point and the final score is calculated by adding all the points. Thus, the higher the score is, the greater the limitation (Stratford, 1996).

The TUG test is a performance-based measure of functional mobility that was initially developed to identify mobility and dynamic balance impairments in older adults (Cameron and Monroe, 2007; Swearingen and Brach, 2001; Podsiadlo and Richardson, 1991). The TUG test has demonstrated high interrater and intrarater reliability when used to examine elderly adults (Cameron and Monroe, 2007; Swearingen and Brach, 2001). The test requires the subject to rise from a chair, walk three meters at a comfortable pace to a mark placed on the floor, turn around, walk back to the starting point, and return to sitting on the chair. The test's score is the time it takes the subject to complete the test.

The Berg balance scale is a tool suggested by Berg (Berg et al., 1989; Berg et al., 1992) to evaluate balance in the elderly. The test involves performing 14 tests of gradually increasing difficulty where in each one, the subject is asked to maintain a given position for a specific time or conduct specific tasks. Each of the 14 tests on the list is graded according to the balancing ability of the examinee from 0 to 4 points (with 0 indicating low balance ability while 4 high). Accord to Berg et al. (1992), a score of 56 indicates functional balance whereas a score lower than 45 indicates notable balance deficits, which have been related to increased fall risk.

Participants will be asked to write down in a special diary the number of pills administered (anti-inflammatory and/or painkillers) during the follow-up period. The log will be kept kept on a weekly basis and the assessor will collect the data by phone 2-3 times a month.

After the ten weeks the participants of both groups will be asked to perform the specific exercise programs twice per week for a period of three months recording the adherence or not to the exercise programs in a weekly diary while the assessor will collect the data by phone 2-3 times a month.