The Effect of an Overhead External Load Lifting and Lowering on Dynamic Postural Control in Subgroups of Low Back Pain

Abstract

Background: Understanding postural control in low back pain (LBP) subgroups can help develop targeted interventions to improve postural control. The studies on this topic are limited. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to compare the postural control of LBP subgroups with healthy individuals during overhead load lifting and lowering. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the participants were 52 with LBP and 20 healthy. The LBP patients were classified based on the O’Sullivan classification system into 21 flexion patterns and 31 active extension patterns. The participants lifted the box from their waists to their overheads and lowered it to their waists. Changes in postural control parameters were measured with a force plate system. Results: The results of the analysis of variance showed that during load lifting, the mediolateral phase plane (p = .044) and the mean total velocity (p = .029) had significant differences between flexion patterns and healthy. Also, the load-lowering results showed that active extension patterns, compared with healthy, had significant differences in the anteroposterior–mediolateral phase plane (p = .042). The patients showed less postural sway than the healthy. Conclusions: The results in this work highlight the importance of identifying the homogenous subgroups in LBP and support the classification of heterogeneous LBP. Different subgroups exhibit different postural control behaviors. These behaviors can be due to the loading of various tissues during different tasks.