A previous review concluded that postural sway is increased in patients with low back pain ( LBP ) .
In a minority of studies , a decreased sway was found in LBP patients .
There were no systematic differences between studies finding an effect and those reporting no effect of LBP .
The proportion of studies finding between-group differences did not increase with increased complexity of sensory manipulations .
However , more detailed analysis of the literature shows that postural deficit may be dependent on experimental conditions in which patients with LBP have been assessed .
The research question to be answered in this review was : " Is there any difference in postural sway between subjects with and without LBP across several sensory manipulation conditions ? " .
Postural sway in low back pain: Effects of dual tasks.
Recurrence quantification analysis ( RQA ) , a nonlinear method of postural analysis , was used to explore the effects of dual-tasking on postural performance in people with nonspecific low back pain ( LBP ) compared with healthy participants .  Postural performance was quantified by RQA % recurrence , % determinism , entropy and trend .  People with nonspecific LBP ( n=22 ) and unimpaired individuals ( n=22 ) r and omly performed quiet st and ing tasks with three levels of difficulty ( rigid-surface eyes open , rigid-surface eyes closed and foam-surface eyes closed ) . These tasks were performed in isolation or concurrently with an easy or difficult cognitive task . Increasing postural difficulty was associated with higher % determinism , higher entropy and lower trend in anteroposterior ( AP ) and mediolateral ( ML ) directions in people with LBP and healthy participants .  All RQA variables in the ML direction decreased as cognitive conditions became more difficult . Significant interactions between group and cognitive difficulty were shown for % recurrence , % determinism and trend in the AP direction . While healthy participants decreased % recurrence and trend by increasing the level of cognitive difficulty , the LBP patients did not . This preliminary study suggests that LBP may be one factor that modulates the posture-cognition interaction
A previous review concluded that postural sway is increased in patients with low back pain ( LBP ) .
In a minority of studies , a decreased sway was found in LBP patients .
There were no systematic differences between studies finding an effect and those reporting no effect of LBP .
The proportion of studies finding between-group differences did not increase with increased complexity of sensory manipulations .
However , more detailed analysis of the literature shows that postural deficit may be dependent on experimental conditions in which patients with LBP have been assessed .
The research question to be answered in this review was : " Is there any difference in postural sway between subjects with and without LBP across several sensory manipulation conditions ? " .