The functional evaluation of a back belt rehabilitation for low-back pain patients

Back belts are used for preventative and therapeutic purposes. The outcome measures Fail to support the use of back belts to treat or prevent back inj uries. The purposes of this study were (1) to estimate the reliability and responsiveness of the health outcome for individuals participating in back belt rehabilitation, and (2) to compare the health-related quality of rife between individuals with low-back pain (LBP) and normal subjects. Twenty-th ree volunteers without any complaint of LBP and 95 LBP patients participate d in this study. The mobility test and the SF-36 provide reliable and respo nsive measurements, but they appear to provide different information about the health status of LBP patients. Compared with normal subjects, LBP patie nts had lower scores for hearth-related quality of life, but these scores i mproved after 12 weeks of back belt rehabilitation.