Effectiveness of yoga combined with back school program on anxiety, kinesiophobia and pain in people with non-specific chronic low back pain: a prospective randomized trial

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of Yoga combined with Back school program intervention compared to Yoga program only in order to evaluate anxiety, kinesiophobia, back pain disability and quality of life in people affected by non-specific chronic low back pain. Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 70 participants (age 37.97 +/- 5.54 years) with non-specific chronic low back pain were randomized to undergone experimental Yoga combined with Back school group (35 subjects; Intervention) or Hatha Yoga program group (35 subjects, Control) respectively. The intervention consisted of Yoga exercise sessions with Back school meetings, two times per week for 8 weeks. We investigate the effectiveness of these interventions through some psychological factors: anxiety (Hamilton anxiety scale HAM-A), kinesiophobia (Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia TSK), back pain disability (Roland Morris Disabilities RMQ), and quality of life (36 Item Short Form Survey SF-36). Results: We found significant decrease in mean scores of all psychological variables (Anxiety F-2,F-68=53.504, p<0.001; Kinesiophobia F-2,F-68=52.244, p<0.001; Disability F-2,F-68=128.343, p<0.001) and increase in health-related quality of life sub-scales (Bodily pain F-1,F-34=20.907, p<0.001; General mental health F-1,F-34=7.319, p=0.011; General health per-ceptions F-1,F-34=7.879, p=0.008) in Intervention group. Both groups were significantly different in all psychological variables and three sub-scales relate to the quality life (Physical functioning, Bodily pain, and General health perceptions) at the end of 8 and 12 training interventions weeks. Conclusions: This study demonstrated effectiveness of Yoga combined with Back school intervention in people affected by nCLBP with lowering Anxiety, Kinesiophobia and Disability together with improving the quality of life.