The effects on postural control and low back pain according to the types of orthoses in chronic low back pain patients.
Jeong-Il Kang, Hye-Min Kwon, Dae-Keun Jeong and 3 others
PMID 27942123WHAT IT FOUND
People with chronic low back pain wearing soft or rigid lumbosacral belts for 4 weeks had less pain and more stable balance than before.
The soft belt improved forward-back balance more than the rigid belt.
Key findings
01The soft belt group had lower pain scores and lower balance stability indices after 4 weeks, meaning less pain and more stable balance.
02The rigid belt group had lower pain scores and lower overall and side-to-side balance indices after 4 weeks; its forward-back index did not show a meaningful within-group difference.
03The only between-group meaningful difference was in the forward-back balance index, favoring the soft belt.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only 20 patients were studied, 10 in each belt group. There was no untreated control group, so the study cannot show that the belts caused the changes. The paper does not report how much time each day participants wore the belt. The study only followed participants for 4 weeks. The paper does not name a primary outcome. Blinding and placebo belt conditions are not described.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that soft belts are clearly better than rigid belts for chronic low back pain. The only meaningful between-group difference was in the forward-back balance index, and the study had no untreated control group.