Association of Pain-Related Anxiety and Abdominal Muscle Thickness during Standing Postural Tasks in Patients with Non-Specific Chronic Low Back Pain

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of pain-related anxiety on abdominal muscles thickness during standing postural tasks among individuals with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Methods We obtained responses to a pain-related anxiety symptoms questionnaire from 50 participants with CLBP. We then separated participants into high (11 men, 14 women) and low pain-related anxiety (13 men, 12 women) groups and compared assessments of their lateral abdominal muscles thickness during standing tasks on a computerized balance assessment device, using one static level and 2 movable levels (levels 6 and 3 are represented easy and difficult tasks respectively). Results We found a significant interaction effect of standing difficulty (2 levels) and abdominal muscle thickness (transverse abdominis, oblique internal and oblique external muscles) ( p < .001, effect size= .7). The high pain-related anxiety group exhibited greater abdominal muscle thickness during standing postural tasks compared with the low pain-related anxiety group ( p < .05, mean difference= .04-.06) except for the internal oblique muscle during the difficult standing task ( p =.2). Conclusion We suggest that, among individuals with CLBP, pain-related anxiety and psychological pain-related anxiety may be possibly associated with abdominal muscles thickness during dynamic standing.