Ethics statement This study was approved by the institutional review board of the faculty of physical therapy, Cairo university, Egypt (no.P.T. REC/012/003867) and strictly adhered to the criteria proclaimed in the latest version of the declaration of Helsinki code of ethics. each woman freely consents to participate in this research study.
study design. A prospective double-masked randomized controlled trial.
sample size calculation. Based on a pilot study, sample size was calculated according to the significant difference in the value of mean difference (pretreatments - posttreatment values) of ODI between control (16.60 ± 2.22) and study (26.50 ± 4.09) groups in two tailed unpaired t test, with α=0.05, power of 80%, and an effect size of 0.74. So, a sample size of 30 patients/per group would be required and increased to 35 women to allow for a 15% dropout rate (Power 301 http: www.psycho.uni-duesseldorf.de) Randomization. Randomization of sample selection were achieved using closed envelop way to allocate study participants to either intervention group (medication and treatment exercises) control group (medication only). all postmenopausal women and examiners were unaware of group allocation.
