Comparison of Water Exercise Therapy and Massage Therapy on Pain Intensity and Disability in Men with Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain

Low back pain is the most important health problem in which the complementary therapy، such as water exercise therapy and massage could have a basic role in its treatment. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of water exercise therapy and massage on the pain severity and disability of patients with chronic nonspecific low back pain. In this semi-experimental experiment، 24 male patients with chronic nonspecific lowback pain aged 20-40 years with average age of 27. 23 were randomly divided into two groups of «water exercise therapy» and «massage» for treatment. The treatment period lasted 6 weeks and each week consisted of 4 sessions. In order to assess the pain severity and disability، the Oswestry Questionnaires and visual analog score were used respectively before and after the treatment. For data analysis، ANOVA test was applied at the significance level of P≤0. 05. The average pain severity and disability in the water exercise therapy group in the pre-test was 5. 66 ± 0. 878 and 24. 83 ±5. 21 respectively and in the post-test the scores changed to 4. 58 ± 0. 729 and 14. 33 ± 3. 89. The average pain severity and disability in the massage group in the pre-test was 5. 41 ± 0. 668 and 23. 166 ± 3. 45، respectively. The scores changed to 3. 00 ± 1. 128 and 16. 50 ± 4. 10 in the post-test. Therefore، significant changes occurred in both groups. Both massage therapy and water exercise therapy decreased the pain severity in patients with chronic nonspecific back pain، however، massage creates a better effect in pain reduce than water exercise therapy.