Relationship between hip rotation movements and the functional state of the trunk, life quality, daily phisical activity and functional disability rates

The problem to be addressed: back pain is one of the biggest problems for a modern person. People do not only experience pain and lose their ability to work, but also develop psychological and social problems, which is a big challenge for the society as such (Hämmig et al., 2011). The hip joint is a structure, anatomically related to the low back. In the current research, I wanted to analyze relationship between back pain and rotating movements of the hip. I analyzed whether back pain has an impact on amplitudes of rotating movements of the hip and, in case it has, which amplitudes are being impacted. I analyzed also whether the position of hip flexion (0º and 90º) has an impact on the amplitude of the movements when a person is performing rotating movements. It was also important to evaluate the functional state of people who had back pain as opposed to people without such pain. Research object: relationship between rotating movements of the hip and factors which have impact on back pain. The aim of the research: To find out whether there is a relation between rotating hip movements and the functional condition of the trunk, the level of people’s daily physical activity, life quality, and functional disability among people with low back pain. The tasks of the research: 1. To evaluate and to compare the rates of rotating hip movements in the investigated vs. control group, when the hip is in neutral and in 90º bent position. 2. To map and to compare the functional condition of the trunk among people who have and who do not have complaints about low back pain. 3. To estimate rates of the daily physical activity level, life quality and functional capability of the low back. 4. To find correlational dependencies between the estimated rates. Hypothesis: people with low back pain will have limited rotating hip movements, a worse functional state/condition of the trunk, a reduced level of the daily physical activity, a lower life quality and bigger functional disabilities as compared with people who do not complain about low back pain. Research method: I have investigated 30 people with low back pain from public enterprise “Sveiko stuburo mokykla” (“Healthy Spine School”) and 38 students of LSMU (Lithuanian University of Health Sciences) without low back pain. The most of the participants in my investigation were women, there were only 10 men in each group. The investigation was carried out in the period 03-09-2010 – 11-04-2011. The following rates were measured: endurance of the trunk muscles, trunk amplitude, functional performance tests, disk compression test “reach forward”, hip rotation movements and the level of functional disability, life quality and the level of daily physical activity. Statistically data was analyzed using SPSS 16.0 for Windows”. Conclusions: 1.With the hip in a neutral position, the results of active rotating hip movements were statistically significantly better among the participants of the control group. With the hip in 90º flexion/bent position, the results were statistically significantly better among the participants in the investigated group. As to the evaluation of passive rotating hip movements in both positions, no statistically significant difference between the two groups was found. 2. The functional state / condition of the trunk was statistically significantly worse (p<0,05) in the investigated group as compared with the control group. 3. The comparison of the investigated group and the control group showed statistically significant differences (p