The Effects of Aerobic Exercise Combined With Core Stabilisation Training on Functional Capacity, Physical Performance and Fall Risk in Geriatric Individuals With Chronic Non-specific Low Back Pain

Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used to determine the presence and severity of low back pain in the study participants. GAS is a practical test with high validity and reliability in pain assessment. GAS is an assessment method numbered from 0 to 10, where '0' indicates no pain and '10' indicates the presence of the most severe pain. Participants were asked to mark the degree of pain they had on this scale and recorded.

Functional status was assessed using the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). The OSI is a widely used questionnaire for the assessment of functional status in patients with low back pain. It includes subjective assessment. There are items including activities of daily living such as pain intensity, self-care, lifting, walking, sitting, standing, sleeping, social life and travelling information. The items are scored between 0-5. The final score is calculated by taking the patient's score as a percentage of the maximum score. Higher scores indicate an increasing level of disability. Turkish validity and reliability was performed by Yakut et al. in 1998.

Biodex balance system (Biodex Medical System Inc., NY, USA, Model SW45-30D-E6N, SD 950-304) was used for fall risk assessment. This device creates stability indices by evaluating movements in the overall, anterior-posterior and right-left (medial-lateral) directions. Its validity and reliability have been established in this field. It has static and dynamic modes and 12 mobility levels of the platform (mobility level of the floor). In the limit of stability test, there are 9 balls, 1 in the middle and 8 on the edges, and when these balls light up, the person should move the centre of gravity to the burning ball and keep it there for 0.25 seconds. Each ball flashes once during the test and after the ball on the edge lights up, the ball in the centre lights up again. The aim is to move the centre of gravity in the specified direction. The test was performed three times and the extinguishing time of all balls was recorded by the device.

The 6-minute walk test is used as a simple measure of aerobic exercise capacity. During this test, you walk at a normal pace for six minutes on a 30-metre long hard surface track, marking the track every 3 metres and placing a cone at the end of the 30-metre track and walking back around it. This test can be used to monitor your response to treatments for heart, lung and other health problems.

Beck depression scale is a widely used psychological measurement tool to assess depression symptoms. This scale developed by Aaron T. Beck is an important tool used to determine the level of depression of individuals and in treatment processes. Beck depression scale consists of a series of questions including various emotional, cognitive and physical symptoms and the answers to the questions provide information about the severity of depression.

The level of kinesiophobia was evaluated with the 'Tampa Kinesiophobia Scale (TKS)'. The TQS is a 17-question questionnaire developed for musculoskeletal pain, which has been validated and reliable in Turkish. In the scale, a 4-point Likert scoring system (1=Strongly disagree, 2=Agree, 3=Disagree, 4=Strongly agree) is used for each question. As a result of the questionnaire, the person receives a total score between 17-68 according to the answers given. A high score indicates a high level of kinesiophobia.