Proprioceptive change impairs balance control in older patients with low back pain.

The study compared groups at one time, so it cannot show that proprioceptive change caused low back pain or balance problems. Participants were older adults with spinal stenosis or spondylitis deformans seeking conservative treatment, so results may not apply to younger people, community-dwelling older adults, or those with severe disability. Controls were inpatients without disabling low back pain, not necessarily healthy community controls, and the low back pain group was older on average. The balance outcome was a research measure derived from center-of-pressure displacement on a Wii board during vibration; its clinical meaning and link to falls are not established. The authors state it remains unclear whether the proprioceptive differences were due to reduced peripheral input in low back pain. No treatment was tested, so the paper cannot support a therapy recommendation.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest. No funding source is stated in the supplied text.

Do not conclude that impaired proprioception causes low back pain or that balance training can correct it. This was a cross-sectional comparison, and it only shows that a trunk-reliance measure was associated with low back pain.