Back Exercises: What patients are taught and what they do.

Thirty patients with low back pain were referred for examination by their doctors after 3 or more weeks of treatment. Whether back exercise instruction had been given, who had given it, what it was, and whether the patients actually followed the instruction was noted. Some type of back exercise had been taught to 22 patients, but only three out of the 30 patients had persisted with all the back exercises taught. The back exercises patients actually do and the role of exercise in low back pain should be evaluated further.