Improvements in Adolescents With Back Pain After Pilates (PilatesBack)

July 23, 2018 updated by: Noelia González-Gálvez, Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia

Improvement in Adolescents With a History of Back Pain After Pilates

The main physical condition factor related to back pain and mobility among adolescents are trunk endurance and hamstring extensibility. The Pilates Method (PM) can be used as a specific exercise technique to train trunk endurance and hamstring extensibility, but there is little evidence regarding its effect in adolescents with a history of back pain. The objective of this study is to determine whether Pilates is effective for improving the trunk endurance and hamstring extensibility of adolescents with a history of back pain and to determine the differences between the sexes. The sample was composed of 52 students with a mean age of 14.44 ± 0.7 years who had suffered back pain during the past year. They were distributed into the Pilates Exercise Group (PEG, n = 26) and the Control Group (CG, n = 26). The Pilates programme was conducted over 6 weeks. For measuring trunk flexion and extension endurance, the bench trunk curl (BTC) test and the Sorensen (SOR) test were used, respectively. Hamstring extensibility was measured with the toe touch (TT) test. After the Pilates intervention, either the whole sample or males and females separately improved significantly (p ≤ 0.05) in the BTC, SOR or TT test.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Back pain during the adolescent years is a precursor to chronic back pain in adulthood. The prevalence of back pain among schoolchildren is growing across the world, and it is similar to that of the adult population. Back pain is the first cause of disability in the world.

The main physical condition factor related to back pain and mobility among adolescents are trunk endurance and hamstring extensibility. The Pilates Method (PM) can be used as a specific exercise technique to train trunk endurance and hamstring extensibility, but there is little evidence regarding its effect in adolescents with a history of back pain.

The objectives of this study was: a) to analyse the effect of a Pilates programme on trunk endurance and extensibility in adolescents with a history of back pain and b) to determine the differences between the sexes.

The present research was a 6-week randomised controlled trial in which adolescents with a history of back pain were randomly assigned to a Pilates-based exercise group (PEG; n = 26) and a control group (CG; n = 26).

The sample was composed of 52 students with a mean age of 14.44 ± 0.7 years who had suffered back pain during the past year. They were distributed into the Pilates Exercise Group (PEG, n = 26) and the Control Group (CG, n = 26).

The Pilates exercise programme was implemented over 6 weeks, with 2 sessions/week (55 minutes/session). Adolescents assigned to the CG did not receive any structured exercise programme; they just attended their usual Physical Education sessions.

The Pilates programme was conducted by the Physical Education teacher, who was certified in Pilates training. The Pilates programme began at the basic level, incorporating more difficult principles and exercises gradually.

For measuring trunk flexion and extension endurance, the bench trunk curl (BTC) test and the Sorensen (SOR) test were used, respectively. Hamstring extensibility was measured with the toe touch (TT) test. After the Pilates intervention, either the whole sample or males and females separately improved significantly (p ≤ 0.05) in the BTC, SOR or TT test.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

52

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

13 years to 16 years (CHILD)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • having had a history of back pain last year
  • being physically active in school physical education sessions

Exclusion Criteria:

  • presenting any musculoskeletal, neurological, cardiological, metabolic or rheumatic alteration
  • missing more than one session of the programme (91.66% attendance)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
NO_INTERVENTION: Control
Adolescents assigned to the CG did not receive any structured exercise programme; they just attended their usual Physical Education sessions.
EXPERIMENTAL: Pilates
The Pilates exercise programme was implemented over 6 weeks, with 2 sessions/week (55 minutes/session).
Other: Pilates
The Pilates exercise programme was implemented over 6 weeks, with 2 sessions/week (55 minutes/session). The Pilates programme was conducted by the Physical Education teacher, who was certified in Pilates training. The Pilates programme began at the basic level, incorporating more difficult principles and exercises gradually. The sessions were divided into the warm-up (7 min), the main part (41 min), and the cool down (7 min). Tt concentrated on basic Pilates exercises involving the principal regions of the body (spine flexions, extensions and rotations; hip flexions, extensions and rotations; and shoulder abductions, adductions and rotations).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Trunk flexor endurance
Time Frame: Pre and Post-intervention: change after 6 weeks of intervention
The bench trunk curl (BTC) test was used to evaluate trunk flexor endurance. The result is register in repetitions numbers. Higher values represent a better outcome.
Pre and Post-intervention: change after 6 weeks of intervention
Isometric trunk extension
Time Frame: Pre and Post-intervention: change after 6 weeks of intervention
Isometric trunk extension endurance was measured using the Sorensen (SOR) test. The result is register in seconds. Higher values represent a better outcome.
Pre and Post-intervention: change after 6 weeks of intervention
Hamstring extensibility
Time Frame: Pre and Post-intervention: change after 6 weeks of intervention
The toe touch (TT) test was used to evaluate hamstring extensibility. The result is register in centimeters. Higher values represent a better outcome.
Pre and Post-intervention: change after 6 weeks of intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Weight
Time Frame: Pre and Post-intervention: change after 6 weeks of intervention
Weight was measured using a SECA 762 scale (SECA, Germany) in kilograms.
Pre and Post-intervention: change after 6 weeks of intervention
Height
Time Frame: Pre and Post-intervention: change after 6 weeks of intervention
Height was measured using a GPM anthropometer (Siber-Hegner, Switzerland) in meters.
Pre and Post-intervention: change after 6 weeks of intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Noelia González, PhD., UCAM

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

January 16, 2016

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

February 28, 2017

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

March 2, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 4, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 23, 2018

First Posted (ACTUAL)

August 1, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

August 1, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 23, 2018

Last Verified

July 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • NGonzalez-Galvez

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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