Inter-Girdle Coordination as a Predictive Measure of Low Back Pain

Low back pain (LBP) is a common chronic musculoskeletal disorder with significant interpersonal variability, so individual treatment strategies are difficult to implement. Prevention of recurrence, particularly through exercise and physical activity, appears to be necessary to avoid acute episodes. The present study aims to find whether some behavioral characteristics (particularly inter-girdle coordination) in the painless period in patients who had experienced LBP could be detected as relevant to prevent acute recurrences. Thirty-four young adults participated in the study. They were recruited from outpatient physiotherapy clinics. Sixteen subjects formed the Control group (CG), and eighteen subjects formed the patient group (LBPG), with no differences between groups in individual parameters. Moreover, the Duke Health Profile (General Health Score, Perceived Health Score, and Pain Score) was calculated and did not show differences between groups. Kinematic data, muscular activity, and inter-girdle coordination were captured. Our results show significant differences between groups only for inter-girdle coordination, which is less out-of-phase in the LBP group. The emergence of coordinative patterns (in the present work, the inter-girdle coordination) expresses behavior in an integrative way and allows the prevention of acute recurrences despite a lack of differences in usual gait parameters.