Home walking is the way forward

A home-based walking programme for people with lower back pain has been found to be as effective as a programme within a clinical situation, suggests a new study.

Researchers assessed 52 people with lower back pain to determine their levels of pain, feelings of disability, tendency to avoid daily activities and muscle and walking endurance. One group took part in a clinic-based muscle strengthening programme (two or three weekly exercise sessions for six weeks). The other group completed a six-week walking programme (20 minutes of walking on two or three days each week, increasing to 40 minutes per session).
Both groups showed significant and similar levels of improvement.  And those who walked from home were later able to walk further in a six-minute test than the clinic-based group.

There are concerns that home-based programmes do not work on a long-term scale as people need the incentive of a supervised session involving a healthcare professional.

But the study clearly showed that the walking programme was “as effective as treatment that could have been received in the clinic”, says Dr Michal Katz-Leurer who led the study.

Published in Clinical Rehabilitation, the results could benefit patients and health services, as a home-based regime could provide significant time and cost-savings over a clinic-based one.