The objective of this study was to identify the effectiveness of dry cupping and hot pack on pain relief and reduce functional disability for patients with non-specific low back pain. A total of 39 patients with non-specific low back pain from Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were chosen as participants using purposive sampling methods. The participants were randomly assigned equally (N = 13) into dry cupping group, hot pack group and control group. Dry cupping group received a session of treatment in a week, hot pack group received twice a week of treatment session and control group had no treatment, but the participants were allowed to continue their previous treatment. Numerical pain rating scale (NPRS) was used to measure pain intensity and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) was used to measure functional disability before and after the intervention for all three groups. Data was analyzed using one-way ANOVA with significant level was predetermined at p < 0.025 prior to study. The study findings indicated that both dry cupping group and hot pack group showed significant improvement on pain relief (p = 0.001) and functional disability (p = 0.001) after completing the interventions when compared to control group. Therefore, both dry cupping and hot pack were found to be effective interventions for pain relief and reduce functional disability among patients with non-specific low back pain. Health professional practice are suggested to include dry cupping therapy as another choice of treatment in treating patients with non-specific low back pain.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PDF locator
• publisher