Özet:

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare whether balneotherapy has a positive effect on the treatment of elderly individuals receiving physical therapy for chronic low back pain (CLBP). Methods: 244 participants were randomly placed into two groups. The first group was treated with physical therapy (PT), the second group was treated with PT and balneotherapy (BT). Assessments were made using the PainVAS, Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale (Quebec), Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) before treatment (T0) and after treatment (T1). Results: In both groups, there was a statistically significantly decrease in terms of pain-VAS, Quebec and HAQ scores (p<0.001). When pain-VAS scores were compared between the two groups, pain-VAS T0 was significantly higher and pain-VAS T1 was significantly lower in the BT+PT group than the PT group (p=0.001). When the HAQ and Quebec values were compared between the groups, the T0 value was similar in the BT+PT and PT groups (HAQ p=0.068, Quebec p=0.495) while the BT+PT group HAQ and QuebecT1 scoreswere significantly lower than the PT group (p<0.001). The BT+PT group change values were significantly higher than the PT group (p<0.001). Conclusion: These results recommend that combining therapies may be more effective in treating CLBP and balneotherapy may increase the effectiveness of the treatment.

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