Analysis of factors that effect exercise adherence on chronic low back pain patients

Objective: The purpose of this study is to identfy the factors that effect exercise adherence on chronic low back pain patients.Method: The subjects were 35 chronic low back pain patients that included physiotherapy program with three months persistent pain. The treatment program of the patients continued during two weeks. The correlation among exercise adherence and disability, satisfaction, visual imagery, fatigue, self-efficacy were assessed. To assess exercise adherence, Patient Self-Report Scales of Their Home Based Rehabilitation Adherence Scale was used. The scale was scored daily by patients. Oswestry Disability Questionnaire (ODQ) was used to evaluate disability values at the beginning and at the end of treatment program. Patient Acceptable Symptom Scale (PASS) was utilized as a measure of satisfaction of patients from treatment program and to measure fatigue The Checklist Individual Strength-Second Revision (CIS) was used. Both of them was assessed at the end of the treatment program. Visual imagery was examined with Visual Imagery Questionnaire-Revised Second Version (VIQ) at the beginning of the program. Finally, self?efficacy was measured by McAuley?s Self-Efficacy Scale at the beginning of the program. Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test were used for analysis of datas.Results:Imagery ability and patient satisfaction were strongly correlated with adherence (p<0,05). The correlation between self-efficacy and adherence was positively non-significant (p>0,05). Disability and fatigue were found to be correlated negatively non-significant with adherence (p>0,05). Second measurements of disability levels of satisfied patients were significantly lower than first measurements (p<0,05). There was no significant difference between measurements before and after treatment on non-satisfied patients (p>0,05).Conclusion: There was a strong relationship between adherence and development of imagery ability. The study shows us imagery development could enhance treatment adherence, rapid healing and restoring of the functional movement. The study claims that patients? satisfaction results from the treatment program not from the physiotherapist. Also it was observed that disability, fatigue and self-efficacy levels were not effective on the adherence.Key Words: Low back pain, adherence, visual imagery, fatigue, exercise.