Outcome measures
Demographic characteristics, age, gender, weight, height, body mass index, smoking, exercise habit, and history were recorded. Before and after the treatment programs, evaluations related to low back pain intensity, spinal mobility, disability, quality of life, anxiety, and depression were carried out. All evaluations were conducted by the same physical therapist (DOK), who was blinded to the group interventions.
A 10-cm visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to determine the low back pain intensity at rest (VAS_rest), during activity (VAS_activity), and at night (VAS_night). The VAS has been shown to be a valid and reliable tool for measuring experimental and clinical pain (Clark et al., 2003). The VAS is scored on a 10-cm horizontal line with 0 indicating ‘no pain’ and 10 ‘worst imaginable pain’. The patients were asked to mark their low back pain on the horizontal line.
Spinal mobility was assessed with a modified version of the Schober test (Rezvani et al., 2012). While the patient was in standing erect position, a mark was made on the back in the midpoint on the imaginary line joining posterior superior iliac spine. Another mark was made 10 cm above and 5 cm below of this mark. The patient was asked to maximally bend forward keeping the knees fully extended. The distance between these marks was measured. Mobility was calculated by examining the difference between upright and maximum flexion end positions