Yoshihito Sakai, Yoshifumi Morita, Keitaro Kawai, Jo Fukuhara, Tadashi Ito, Kazunori Yamazaki, Tsuyoshi Watanabe, Norimitsu Wakao, Hiroki Matsui
Abstract
Proprioceptive function declines with age, leading to falls, pain, and difficulties in performing activities of daily living among older adults. Although individuals with low back pain (LBP) exhibit decreased lumbosacral proprioception in various postures.
Introduction
The prevalence of chronic musculoskeletal pain is reported as 15·4% in the Japanese population, with low back pain (LBP) being the most common in men and women aged 75–84 years [1]. One cause of the increasing prevalence of LBP in older people is sarcopenia, an age-related condition that results in skeletal muscle mass reduction [2].
Methods
Patients with non-specific chronic LBP were recruited from a single institute (National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology) during the period from April 2021 to March 2023. Participants were briefed on the study and each of them provided informed consent.
Results
Ultimately, 56 patients with chronic LBP (mean age, 76.38±5.30 years; minimum, 67 years; median, 76 years; maximum, 87 years; sex, 28 male and 28 female individuals) were enrolled, and all patients underwent proprioceptive function diagnostic evaluation.
Discussion
To our knowledge, this is the first prospective study to evaluate the efficacy of TVT as a treatment for proprioceptive function, and it represents the first clinical study to establish a medical opinion on the relationship between proprioceptive function and LBP derived from an intervention study in patients with nonspecific chronic LBP.
Conclusion
TVT, involving vibratory stimulation applied to impaired proprioceptors at a frequency corresponding to the receptor, improves proprioception and LBP in older patients with impaired proprioceptive function.
Citation: Sakai Y, Morita Y, Kawai K, Fukuhara J, Ito T, Yamazaki K, et al. (2024) Targeted vibratory therapy as a treatment for proprioceptive dysfunction: Clinical trial in older patients with chronic low back pain. PLoS ONE 19(7): e0306898. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306898
Editor: Jose María Blasco, Universitat de Valencia, SPAIN
Received: November 27, 2023; Accepted: June 19, 2024; Published: July 19, 2024
Copyright: © 2024 Sakai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: The data underlying the results presented in the study are available from Nagoya Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, http://www.nicp.jp/company/).
Funding: This study was supported by the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology in the form of a grant [21-32] to YS.
Competing interests: no competing interests exist.
Source: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0306898#abstract0
