The Effect of Foot Reflexology on the Reduction of Chronic Low Back Pain

Research in Exercise and Sports Medicine

دوره 3، شماره 2، بهمن 2012، صفحه 14-18   

نوع مقاله: Original Article

چکیده

Introduction: Over 80% of people experience low back pain at least once in their life, which may turn into 
chronic low back pain over time. Since most of the patients tend to take non-aggressive and non-medicinal 
treatments with low health risks and complications, this study aims at investigating the effect of foot 
reflexology as a safe, refreshing treatment on the reduction of chronic low back pain. Previous studies by 
foreign scholars have confirmed that reflexology may reduce chronic low back pain; however, few domestic 
studies have examined this issue. Therefore, the main objective of the present study was to answer the question 
whether foot reflexology affects the reduction of chronic low back pain.
Material and Methods: The study takes on a practical and quasi-experimental design. The participants were 
24 male patients with chronic low back pain as diagnosed by physicians and criteria of research. The subjects 
were randomly assigned into one of the two equal groups: people of experimental or control group. As a 
pre-test, Pain intensity using the VAS (visual analog scale) was measured and the reflexology on the 
experimental protocol was applied. While the treatment was being performed on the experimental group, the 
control group received no therapeutic treatment and were engaged in their routines. To process the raw data, 
SPSS software, version 18 was used. Subsequently, dependent t-test (inter-group comparison) and P- values
were used to interpret the data and examine the significance of research hypotheses. Besides, one-way 
ANOVA and LSD test were used to compare the means of the groups. 
Results: The findings of the study confirmed the efficacy of foot reflexology in reducing chronic low back 
pain (P<0.005) and indicated a significant difference between the mean pain intensity in the experimental 
group as measured by VAS index before and after the foot reflexology treatment (P<0.005). Accordingly, the 
mean low back pain in experimental group was 5.95 in the pretest and 4.05 in the posttest, which indicated 
31% pain reduction. 
Discussion and Conclusion: According to the positive outcomes of this procedure, it is concluded that 
reflexology can be regarded as a non-aggressive, supplementary procedure in treating patients with chronic low 
back pain

کلیدواژه‌ها

Reflexology؛ Foot massage؛ Chronic low back pain