The patient was advised to clean the skin with alcohol and shave the hairy areas. The standing patient was asked to take off high heels if he/she was wearing them.

The paravertebral technique was used with 5 cm x 5 m kinesio tape material. While the patient was standing in an upright position, two longitudinal pieces were cut by taking the tape and slightly rolling its corners. The patient was asked to lean forward. The lower end of the tape was attached 7 cm below the sacroiliac joint at the level of the paravertebral muscles and the patient was bent forward. The patient was asked to do a slight rotation to the left, and while in this position, the tape was attached to T11-T12 without stretching at all. Kinesio tape was attached to the opposite side of the vertebrae with the same procedure.

The patient was asked to lean forward, and 5 cm x 5 m rigid tape material was used in the right paravertebral region. When bonding the tape, first, the lower end of the tape was attached 7 cm below the sacroiliac joint at the level of the paravertebral muscles and the patient was bent forward. Then, the patient was asked to do a slight rotation to the left, and while in this position, the hypoallergenic tape (beta fix) was applied with no tension [23]. Then, rigid tape was applied upward onto the paravertebral muscles. The left paravertebral region was taped with the same procedure as the right paravertebral region .

Placebo taping was applied to patients in this group using betafix, an elastic stabilization tape, as material. A straight line of betafix was applied to the non-painful scapular inferior alignment of the spine, right and left, while the patient was standing upright.

Treatment with taping was administered to all groups every 2 days by the same physiotherapist .

Kinesio tape was developed by Kenzo Kase in the 1970s. It is an elastic tape, and its adhesive face is sinusoidal wavy. This feature has been shown to increase daily living activities and functions, as it supports the tissue while also allowing movement [12]. Kinesio tape lifts the skin and subcutaneous soft tissues of the fascia, which are painful and inflamed regions upon contractions seen in the tissue after tense adhesion to the skin. Therefore, it has been reported to reduce oedema and inflammation by creating more space and providing blood and lymphatic fluid flow.

The Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire is a 24-item survey designed to assess the degree of functional limitation in patients with low back pain. The questionnaire answers are Yes-No (Yes: 1 point, No: 0 points), and high scores indicate severe disability

Regional tissue temperature was measured by digital electronic infrared thermography (FLIR-e63900, Wilsonville, OR, USA). This method is a non-invasive assessment tool that does not require intervention by the investigator. The investigator can see changes in the skin surface temperature of the patient and, the thermal differences of the measured point are shown on the monitor.

The Oswestry Disability Index measures the degree to which low back pain affects the daily life activities of patients in 10 different aspects (severity of pain, personal care, lifting, walking, sitting, standing, sleeping, degree of change of pain, social life, and travel). There are six expressions under each item that mark what is appropriate for the patient's condition. The first phrase is scored as "0", and the sixth phrase as "5"; 0-4 points is considered no disability, 5-14 points light disability, 15-24 points medium disability, 25-34 points serious disability, and 35-50 points total functional disability. The minimum score taken from the scale is 0, and the maximum score is 50. Fifty points indicate the highest level of functional inadequacy .