Maha Bilal Butt, Anam Bint Irfan Akbar, Zufa Shafiq, Syed Naeem Abbas, Imran Manzoor, Urooj Sajjad.
Prevalence of diastasis recti abdominis and its impact on quality of life in association with low back pain after postpartum; a cross-sectional study.
Healer J Physiotherap Rehab Jan ;3(8):785-91.

Background: After giving birth, a woman experiences numerous anatomical and physiological changes, including changes in hormone order, blood loss, uterine contractions and more. These changes can lead to postpartum problems such as postpartum hemorrhage, postpartum endometritis, depression and diastasis recti which contributes to frequent health problems such as lower back discomfort in new mothers. Women who have diastasis recti are more prone to experience more severe abdominal and pelvic pain. Objective: To determine the prevalence of diastasis of recti abdominis and its impact on quality of life in association with low back pain after postpartum. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2022 to March 2023 at Al-Shafi Clinic, Mother Care Hospital. The study followed 300 first-time mothers from conception to 12 months after giving birth. Data was collected from female participants who fulfilled inclusion and exclusion criteria. Consent was taken from them to ensure their voluntary participation before data collection. Then a manual test named a two-finger test was performed to diagnose diastasis recti. The Oswestry low back index and WHO quality of life questionnaire were used as outcome measure tools filled by a therapist by asking questions from participants. Data was evaluated by SPSS version 21 and descriptive statistics were presented as frequency tables, mean standard deviation, mode, bar chart, pie chart and histograms. Results: The mean age of the candidate was 33.99 +- 4.13years. Differential statistics are calculated by different parametric tests. The chi-square test was used between the deliveries and the two-finger test. Cross tabulation was applied to compare quality of life and low back pain. the study recruited were 300 (100%) females. minimum no. of deliveries 1.00 and maximum 6.00. shown that the maximum number of participants was positive 292 after the chi-square test was applied. Conclusion: It is concluded that diastasis recti abdominis has a significant association with low back pain that affects the life quality post-partum. It showed quality of life was majorly impacted by diastasis recti abdominis as social health and general health were affected more than environmental health and physiological health due to diastasis recti abdominis.

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