The impact of rehabilitation on the health-related quality of life in patients with vertebral fragility fractures

Vertebral fractures are one of the most frequent and serious osteoporotic fractures. Rehabilitation plays an important role in these patients through its potential impact on pain and physical function, not only in the short-term, but also in the long term. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of a 10 days-rehabilitation program on quality of life in the long term. This study was an observational study conducted on patients with fragility vertebral fractures. At baseline and after 6 months the following parameters were evaluated: height and occiput wall distance, Visual Analogue Scale for dorsal and lumbar pain, 20 meters walk test for gait's performance. For quality of life assessment we used the Italian version of EuroQuol-5-dimensions-3-level. Patients were divided in two groups: 39 patients underwent a 10 days-rehabilitation program specific for fragility vertebral fractures, 15 patients did not receive any rehabilitation treatment. Patients who underwent a specific physiotherapy program had better quality of life-related outcomes after 6 months than patients did not perform any rehabilitation, in particular in EQ-Global Health and in the mobility and selfcare dimension of EQ-index. In conclusions this study shows that in the management of fragility vertebral fractures the exercises have an important role. © 2019 CIC Edizioni Internazionali s.r.l.. All rights reserved