Effect of biomechanical awareness and core stability exercises on mechanical low back pain among Egyptian Physiotherapists

Background: mechanical low back pain is common injury experienced by physiotherapists thus they require a good mechanical awareness about their position while working to avoid stress on low back area. Purpose: to investigate the impact of core stability exercises and biomechanical awareness on the intensity of low back pain, back muscle endurance, function and fatigue among Egyptian physiotherapists with mechanical low back pain.Methods: fifty-two of both genders' Egyptian physiotherapists with mechanical low back pain, participated in the study, their age ranged from25 to 40 years old. they were assigned randomly into two groups. group A:26 physiotherapists received biomechanical awareness advices while working and core stability exercises for 4 weeks. group B:26physiotherapists received core stability exercises only for 4 weeks.. outcome measures included: the intensity of back pain was measured by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), back muscle endurance (BME) was measured by Biering-Sorenson test, the level of function (disability) was measured by the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and fatigue was measured by Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). Results: there was a significant improvement in all variables in the two groups (p=0.001) and there was statistically significant difference post-treatment between both groups in favor to group A (p= 0.001).Conclusion: biomechanical awareness advices while working with core stability exercises is effective more than core stability exercises alone in improving pain intensity, back muscle endurance, fatigue and function in physiotherapist with mechanical low back pain