A comparison between three physiotherapy approaches with regard to health-related factors in patients with non-specific musculoskeletal disorders.
OBJECTIVE
The main aim of this study was to compare the effects of Body Awareness Therapy (BAT), the Feldenkrais (FK) method and conventional physiotherapy on changes of health-related quality of life (HRQL), self-efficacy and sense of coherence (SOC) in patients with non-specific musculoskeletal disorders. A second aim was to explore the relationships between SOC, HRQL and self-efficacy and to examine whether SOC could be a predictor of the treatment outcome.


METHODS
A total of 78 patients, 64 women and 14 men, were recruited consecutively to the three treatment groups. The instrument used were the Swedish version of SF-36, the 20 items Arthritis Self-efficacy Scale and the 29-item questionnaire by Antonovsky.


RESULTS
The results showed that there were significant improvements on all subscales of SF-36 except for one. By using effect-size values it was found that the BAT and FK groups reached larger effect-size than did the conventional therapy group. These two groups also improved in self-efficacy of pain and stayed stable while the third group deteriorated at the one-year follow-up. There were significant correlations between the mental dimensions of SF-36 and SOC indicating that the instruments may measure aspects of the same global construct.


CONCLUSIONS
Although few significant differences between the three treatment groups the BAT and FK seemed to improve health-related quality of life and self-efficacy of pain to a somewhat higher degree than the conventional physiotherapy. SOC seemed to be a stable trait measure over time.
Malmgren-Olsson
Eva-Britt
EB
Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Umeå University, Sweden. eva-britt.malmgren-olsson@physiother.umu.se
Bränholm
Inga-Britt
IB
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D010146:Pain; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D020377:Self Efficacy; D016896:Treatment Outcome