Objectives : The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of 12 weeks-walking exercise with functional shoes on chronic low back pain.
Methods : The subjects of this study were 18 females from thirty to sixty years old who had suffered from low back pain over 12 weeks. They wore S shoes with curved out-sole and soft material in arch of foot We asked them to walk wearing shoes for 1 hour a day over 4 days a week for 12 weeks. Improvement of the symptoms was evaluated by pain rating scale, Oswestry low-back pain disability index. We measured lumbar lordotic angle, Ferguson's angle, bone mineral density, body composition. The measurements were checked before and after exercise.
Results : This study showed significant improvement in pain rating scale, oswestry low-back pain disability index, and body composition. And lumbar lordotic angle, Ferguson's angle and bone mineral density decreased.
Conclusions : These results showed that walking exercise with functional shoes could decrease the symptoms of chronic low back pain. But, it's too difficult to conclude whether the efficacy was due to functional shoes or walking exercise because we didn't set the control group wearing general shoes.