Efficacy of Manual Therapy Techniques and Electrotherapy Modalities in Individuals With Non-specific Low Back Pain

It is a questionnaire to evaluate the disability levels and quality of life faced by patients due to low back pain. It was developed to evaluate pain-related limitation in people with acute, subacute, or chronic low back pain. It includes 1 item related to pain and 9 items related to activities of daily living (personal care, lifting, walking, sitting, sanding, sleep, sexual life, social life and travel). Each item is measured on a 6-point rank scale between 0 and 5 points according to the scenarios it contains. At the end of the survey, the scores are summed and the percentage value is calculated for the total score.

This scale has been shown to accurately measure the level of depression. The scale consists of 21 questions with 4 options, each corresponding to 0-3 points, and the patient is asked to choose the appropriate sentence according to his condition in the last week. mood, pessimism, sense of failure, dissatisfaction, sense of guilt, sense of punishment, self-hatred, self-blame, desire for self-punishment, crying spells, irritability, social introversion, indecisiveness, deterioration of body perception, determination of workability, sleep disorders, 21 symptoms and behaviors including fatigue, fatigue, decreased appetite, weight loss, somatic complaints and loss of libido are questioned.

The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index is a self-report questionnaire that assesses sleep quality and disturbance over the past 1-month time period. This questionnaire has seven scales including Subjective Sleep Quality, Sleep Latency, Sleep Duration, Habitual Sleep Efficiency (the ratio of sleep time to time in bed), Sleep Disorders (waking up at night), Sleeping Medication Use, and Daytime Dysfunction (problems caused by insomnia during the day). . Calculation of scores for these seven components yields a final score. The score for each scale ranges from 0-3, with three points on each scale indicating the maximum negative value. The total score of this questionnaire is between 0-21, and a total score greater than 5 is an indication of inadequate sleep quality.

It is another method used to evaluate the flexibility/mobility of the lumbar spine. While the patient is standing in an upright position, the lumbosacral junction determined in accordance with the two sacroiliac joint positions is marked with a pencil. The second point is marked 5 cm below this marked point, and the third point is marked 10 cm above it. Afterwards, the patient is asked to flex the trunk as much as possible while the knees are in full extension. After the movement is completed, the newly formed distance between the second and third points is measured in "cm" with the help of a tape measure. Subtract 15 cm from the value obtained from the measurement result, and if the calculation is less than 7 cm, it is assumed that the lumbar flexibility has decreased.

The Visual Analog Scale (VAS) was used to evaluate the pain intensity of patients with low back pain during movement and rest. According to the VAS, patients are asked to indicate their pain intensity by giving a number from 1 to 10, with a score of "0" if the pain sensation is no pain, and "10" if the pain sensation is the most severe.

While the patient is standing in an upright position, the patient is asked to flex the trunk as much as possible without flexing the knees, with the hands free. The distance between the third finger of the patient and the ground is recorded with the help of a tape measure.