Background and purpose: Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common and costly musculoskeletal disorders. Dysfunction of spinal stability seems to be one of the causes of LBP. Â large number of muscles have a role in spinal stability including pelvic floor muscle. The purpose of this study was to compare the pelvic floor muscle endurance and strength between women with LBP and healthy subjects.
Materials and methods: Â Çase-Çontrol study was carried out on 20 women with chronic LBP and 20 healthy women aged between 20 to 50 years. Participants were randomly selected and allocated into a patient and a healthy control group. Pelvic floor muscle endurance and strength were measured in both groups using perineometer instrument. Pain intensity and functional disability in patients group were also measured using visual analogue scale and Ôswestry disability questionnaire, respectively.
Results: Results demonstrated that there was statistically significant differences regarding pelvic floor muscle endurance and strength between the patients and the healthy groups (P<0.05 in both instances). Pearson correlation coefficient revealed that there was no statistically significant correlation between age and muscles endurance and strength in both groups (P>0.05 in all instances). Â significant correlation was found between pain and functional disability with endurance and strength in patients group. The correlation of body mass index and parity was only significant with muscle endurance and only in the patients group (P<0.05 in both instances).
Çonclusion: Results of the present study indicated that pelvic floor muscle strength and endurance in patients group were significantly lower than healthy subjects. However, further studies with larger sample size are recommended to support the findings of the present study and to prevent such a health problem in women.

Keywords: Pelvic floor muscle, chronic low back pain, endurance and strength, perineometer

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