Chinese Massage Combined with Herbal Ointment for Athletes with Nonspecific Low Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Table 1
Baseline characteristics of the study participants.*
Variable
Experimental group ()
Control group ()
Sex
Male
29
28
Female
26
27
Age (years)
21.18 ± 3.77
19.95 ± 3.57
Sports: no. of patients
Shooting
18
20
Archery
16
15
Handball
21
20
Duration of low back pain-related pain: no. of patients
12 weeks or less
28
25
12 weeks or more
27
30
Medications before intervention: no. of patients (%)
Analgesics
50 (91)
47 (85)
Anticonvulsants
15 (27)
18 (33)
C-SFMPQ scores§
Sensory scores
13.13 ± 1.88
12.96 ± 1.86
Affective scores
8.38 ± 1.10
8.02 ± 1.08
Total scores
21.51 ± 2.54
20.98 ± 2.63
VAS scores†
5.42 ± 0.94
5.36 ± 1.04
Muscle stiffness scores‡
Relaxed state
11.54 ± 1.42
10.98 ± 1.38
Maximal voluntary contraction
9.79 ± 0.92
9.50 ± 0.90
*Plus-minus values are means ± SD unless otherwise noted. §The Chinese Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (C-SFMPQ), which consists of 15 descriptors (11 sensory; 4 affective). Each descriptor is rated on an intensity scale (0 to 3) with the higher scores indicating greater pain. †Visual analogue scale (VAS, rang 0 to 10) with higher scores indicating greater pain. ‡The local muscle stiffness was tested during a relaxed state or a maximal voluntary contraction by Myotonometer.
