Background: The
purpose of this study was to identify the effects of external loads on balance
control during upright stance in Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP) patients and
healthy adults.
Methods: This study was
a qausi-experimental design. External loads were applied to 23 young, healthy
participants and 21 low back pain subjects, and effects on balance control were
characterized by Center-of-Pressure (COP) based measures. Center COP data were
used to calculate standard deviation of amplitude, standard deviation of
velocity in anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions, mean total
velocity and phase plane parameters. We used two way ANOVA to explore the
pre/post applying external load and the between groups difference.
Results: The results showed that applying
external load had a significant main effect on the standard deviation of
amplitude in anterior-posterior and medio-lateral direction and