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ADVICE TO STAY ACTIVE VERSUS ADVICE TO TAKE REST IN BED FOR LOW BACK PAIN AND SCIATICA

Dr Rabia Iqbal, Dr Amna Arif, Dr shahrukh, Dr Aisha, Dr Usama Saeed, Dr Daniyal Ikram, Dr Muhammad Hamza

Title: Advice to stay active versus advice to take rest in low back pain and sciatica. Aim / Purpose of study: This paper is a report of study conducted to explain effectiveness of interventions, advice to stay active versus advice to take rest for low back pain and sciatica to improve health conditions. Background: Common reason for consulting a general practitioner is Low back pain and the primary care management of low back pain is advice on daily activities constitutes an important part. The comparative effectiveness of advice on staying active and bed rest is the part of controversial debate. The current management is causing increasing dissatisfaction, but the treatment recommendations are based on orthopedic teaching. What constitutes effective advice confuse many general practitioners (GPs). Method: CT was conducted via Dallas pain questionnaire. History was taken from patients in physiotherapy department of Jinnah Memorial Trust Hospital (GRW). These patients fall among the age group between 20-60 years. The span of this study was3 weeks. Results: 80% of participants ranging between 20-40 years old age who stayed Active showed the greatest improvement, which could be due to several factors primarily the physical activity and secondarily because of healing occurring faster in younger population as compared to the older individuals. The 41-50 years old participants showed moderate improvement. The 51-60 years old participants showed the least improvement. 40% of participants who were designated in the Rest group showed improvement whereas the rest 60% of participants in this group didn’t show any improvement, in fact their condition got worse day by day. This may be because the patients in this group mainly focused on taking rest and not performing any kind of physical activity. Conclusion: The results of this study imply that staying active have a better effect on improving pain and disability over a longer period than traditionally take rest. However, the younger age group showed marked improvement with posture re-education and exercise. These results are clinically significant. Further longitudinal studies in this area are called for with a recommendation that participants are followed up for at least one year post-intervention in order to find out which approach has better long-term outcomes. Key Words: low back pain, sciatica, rest, activity.

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