• Zhang J

• Low Back Pain / therapy
• Orthotic Devices

Methods: Thirty-two subjects (24 males) were recruited and randomly assigned into 3 study groups. There were 10 subjects in the chiropractic care plus orthotics group, 14 subjects in the orthotics group, and 8 in the control group. All subjects filled out a patient information sheet and pre-screening foot pain questionnaire. Foot orthotics information was collected and the data was sent to Foot Levelers, Inc. for orthotic fabrication. Chiropractic treatment was performed using Activator Technique. In-home exercise was prescribed to subjects receiving orthotics and chiropractic care.

Results: The control group did not experience much change during the testing period. The orthotics group showed improvement in symptoms (P = 0.053), activities of daily living (P = 0.058), sport and recreation (P = 0.186) and quality of life (P = 0.085). While trends were apparent, the improvements did not reach statistically significant levels. In contrast, there was no trend with pain (P =0.492). The orthotics plus chiropractic group showed improvement in the four conditions over the study period. Greater improvement was seen in quality of life (P <0.05), symptoms (P < 0.05) and activities of daily living (P< 0.05), which were statistically significant. Improvement was also seen in sports and recreation but it did not reach statistical significant level (P = 0.097).

Conclusion: This study showed that a combination of chiropractic care and orthotics improved symptoms, activities of daily living, sport and recreation and quality of life in workers whose job requires them to stand at least 6 hours daily.

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