Investigating the Effect of Exercise in Preventing and Reducing Back Pain in Pregnancy: A Systematic Review

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Reproductive Health, Community-Oriented Nursing Midwifery Research Center, Nursing and Midwifery School, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of Reproductive Health, Counseling and Reproductive Health Research Centre, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran

3 Razi Herbal Medicines Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran

4 Assistant Professor, Department of Science, Shahreza Campus, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

5 MSc Student, Community-Oriented Nursing Midwifery Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahrekord, Iran

6 Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Health, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran

7 Musculoskeletal Disease Department, Center for Non-Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control, Ministry of Health of Iran, Ministry of Health & Medical Education, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background: Back pain is a common musculoskeletal problem in pregnancy and can lead to a decrease in people's ability and quality of life. It is important to prevent the occurrence and worsening of back pain during pregnancy. Therefore, this systematic review study aimed to investigate the effect of exercises in preventing and reducing back pain during pregnancy.
Methods: Using the Persian keywords pregnancy, back pain, exercise, physical activity, aerobics, yoga and pilates and their English equivalents in PubMed, SID, Magiran, Scopus, Elsevier, Weily Online Library, Web of Sciences and Google Scholar search engine were searched in the period from 2010 to 2023. From 473 articles, 19 were eligible and selected for this study.
Findings: Several sports interventions were proposed in the reviewed studies, including strength-stretching sports, resistance aerobic sports, yoga, posture correction and pelvic tilt, water sports program, and ball sports. The results showed that the most interventions used in back pain relief were the use of stretching exercises.
Conclusion: A comprehensive review of studies showed that although the type of exercise used is different and due to the variety of studies, it seems difficult to compare them, but it can be stated that most of the exercise interventions can lead to improvement and in some cases prevention of back pain in become pregnant. It seems that more research is needed to identify the best exercise methods, as well as the best period to start exercise intervention, in order to optimize the treatment of women's low back pain during pregnancy.

Highlights

Ziba Raisi Dehkordi: Google Scholar, PubMed

Hadis Sourinejad: Google Scholar, PubMed

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Isfahan Medical School
Volume 42, Issue 798
2nd Week, March
March and April 2025
Pages 1187-1202

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History

  • Receive Date: 24 August 2024
  • Accept Date: 24 November 2024

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