Trial reportBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2007
Acupuncture as an adjunct to exercise based physiotherapy for osteoarthritis of the knee: randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 89 papers, 24 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
89 citing papers in PubMed, 24 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 248 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exercise for osteoarthritis of the knee.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Durable Effects of Acupuncture for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Current pain and headache reports · 2024Pooled it
- Adjunctive therapies in addition to land-based exercise therapy for osteoarthritis of the hip or knee.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Comparative effectiveness of acupuncture in sham-controlled trials for knee osteoarthritis: A systematic review and network meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Acupuncture for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials with Meta-Analyses and Trial Sequential Analyses.BioMed research international · 2022Pooled it
- Do the effects of acupuncture vary between acupuncturists? Analysis of the Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration individual patient data meta-analysis.Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society · 2021Pooled it
- Placebo response and effect in randomized clinical trials: meta-research with focus on contextual effects.Trials · 2021Pooled it
- Identifying patients with chronic pain who respond to acupuncture: results from an individual patient data meta-analysis.Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society · 2021Pooled it
- Acupuncture for hip osteoarthritis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Update of an Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis.The journal of pain · 2018Pooled it
- Risk of bias and methodological issues in randomised controlled trials of acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2018Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Acupuncture for musculoskeletal pain: A meta-analysis and meta-regression of sham-controlled randomized clinical trials.Scientific reports · 2016Pooled it
- Exercise for osteoarthritis of the knee.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015Pooled it
- Pain management with acupuncture in osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC complementary and alternative medicine · 2014Pooled it
- Bias due to lack of patient blinding in clinical trials. A systematic review of trials randomizing patients to blind and nonblind sub-studies.International journal of epidemiology · 2014Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Acupuncture for chronic pain: individual patient data meta-analysis.Archives of internal medicine · 2012Pooled it
- How large are the nonspecific effects of acupuncture? A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.BMC medicine · 2010Pooled it
29 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate the benefit of adding acupuncture to a course of advice and exercise delivered by physiotherapists for pain reduction in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee.
designMulticentre, randomised controlled trial.
setting37 physiotherapy centres accepting primary care patients referred from general practitioners in the Midlands, United Kingdom.
participants352 adults aged 50 or more with a clinical diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis.
interventionsAdvice and exercise (n=116), advice and exercise plus true acupuncture (n=117), and advice and exercise plus non-penetrating acupuncture (n=119).
main outcome measuresThe primary outcome was change in scores on the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities osteoarthritis index pain subscale at six months. Secondary outcomes included function, pain intensity, and unpleasantness of pain at two weeks, six weeks, six months, and 12 months.
resultsFollow-up rate at six months was 94%. The mean (SD) baseline pain score was 9.2 (3.8). At six months mean reductions in pain were 2.28 (3.8) for advice and exercise, 2.32 (3.6) for advice and exercise plus true acupuncture, and 2.53 (4.2) for advice and exercise plus non-penetrating acupuncture. Mean differences in change scores between advice and exercise alone and each acupuncture group were 0.08 (95% confidence interval -1.0 to 0.9) for advice and exercise plus true acupuncture and 0.25 (-0.8 to 1.3) for advice and exercise plus non-penetrating acupuncture. Similar non-significant differences were seen at other follow-up points. Compared with advice and exercise alone there were small, statistically significant improvements in pain intensity and unpleasantness at two and six weeks for true acupuncture and at all follow-up points for non-penetrating acupuncture.
conclusionThe addition of acupuncture to a course of advice and exercise for osteoarthritis of the knee delivered by physiotherapists provided no additional improvement in pain scores. Small benefits in pain intensity and unpleasantness were observed in both acupuncture groups, making it unlikely that this was due to acupuncture needling effects.
trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN88597683 [controlled-trials.com] .
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.