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The Effect of Yoga Exercise on the Relieve of Chronic Low Back Pain

The purpose of this study was to test whether Yoga exercise, one of muscle relaxation, helps to relieve chronic low back paln. Sample were selected from nurses who were worked at K medical center in the period from March 18 to April 23, 1996. The sample size was fifteen. The research design was one-group pretest-posttest design. To test the major research question, this study had the following procedure. The pretest included measuring individuals' degree of pain and discomfort depending on the scope and types of an range of motion, and their pain by their activity of daily living(ADL). The treatment was conducted twice every other week. The reason why this study had twice observations was to control history effect and maturation which treat internal validity in the research design of this study. In this research design, a treatment was to expose Yoga exercise to samples. The exercise was taken in 30 minutes per day for four days in a week (Two consecutive days and twice every other day). The posttest included re-measuring the individuals' the degree of pain and discomfort, and their pain by their ADL. Several hypotheses concerning effect of Yoga exercise was analyzed by the paired t-test, comparing the difference scores between pre and post tests. The results of this study was as follows. The first hypothesis that the post-treatment group taking the Yoga exercise had the pain score lower than the pre-treatment group was supported(t=3.31, p=.005). The second hypothesis that the discomfort score of the post-treatment group had lower than does that of the pre-treatment group was supported(t=2.75, p=.016). The third hypothesis that the post-treatment group had the pain score by ADL lower than does the pre-treatment group was supported(t=5.52, p=.000). In summary, this study examined the effect of a yoga exercise, one of muscle relaxation, on those who were suffered from chronic low back pain. The effect measured by the degree of pain and discomfort with a visual analog scale was statistically significant. The degree of pain according to postures in ADL also showed statistical significance. These findings showed that a yoga exercise was effective to alleviation of chronic low back pain. A pretest-posttest control group design, however, needs to get more accurate results since the design satisfies Internal validity. Consequently, yoga as an exercise cure improves an interaction between muscles and articulations, and performance of ADL for those suffered from chronic low back pain. Furthermore, this positive impact may be an effective method as nursing intervention for their physical, mental, emotional, social, and psychological recovery.