Iranian Journal of Rehabilitation Research in Nursing

Introduction: Musculoskeletal pain in persons living with spinal cord injuries (SCIs) can be debilitating. This study aimed to determine the effect of a specialized exercise program on musculoskeletal pain intensity in paraplegic spinal cord injury patients.

Methods: This study was a randomized controlled trial in which all of the spinal cord injured patients, who were referred to khatam-al Anbia Hospital in Tehran-Iran during six months of 2014, defined as our accessible research population. Forty patients were selected Based on inclusion criteria and then were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups using a random numbers table. Experimental group received twelve 45-60 minutes exercise sessions twice a week which specifically has been developed for paraplegic spinal cord injury patients. Patients pain characteristics and intensity were assessed using International Spinal Cord Injury Based Pain Data Set. Inferential data analyses including chi-square, independent t-test, paired T, and analysis of variance was conducted using SPSS19 statistical software.

Results: Results showed no statistically significant difference between Experimental and control groups about demographic characteristics. The mean musculoskeletal pain intensity Scores before intervention were 6/05±0/87 and 5/63±0/95 in the experimental and the control group respectively, which reached to 3/27±1/4 and 5/47±0/9 after implementation of the intervention and this difference was statistically Significant (p≤0/001).

 Conclusion: The results showed that regular exercise program can alleviate  musculoskeletal pain intensity after spinal cord injuries.