Evidence map›Paper›PMID 19881230›Full record

SynthesisJournal of epidemiology2010

Effectiveness of aquatic exercise and balneotherapy: a summary of systematic reviews based on randomized controlled trials of water immersion therapies.

Hiroharu Kamioka, Kiichiro Tsutani, Hiroyasu Okuizumi, Yoshiteru Mutoh, Miho Ohta, Shuichi Handa, Shinpei Okada, Jun Kitayuguchi, Masamitsu Kamada, Nobuyoshi Shiozawa and 1 more

Open access · goldAbstract readSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Journal of epidemiology, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
42citing papers in PubMed, 9 pooled it
14.3field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

42 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 156 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  4. Efficacy of aquatic therapy for neck pain: a systematic review.International journal of biometeorology · 2020
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  8. Balneotherapy (or spa therapy) for rheumatoid arthritis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.

Hiroharu KamiokaFaculty of Regional Environment Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan. h1kamiok@nodai.ac.jp
Kiichiro Tsutani
Hiroyasu Okuizumi
Yoshiteru Mutoh
Miho Ohta
Shuichi Handa
Shinpei Okada
Jun Kitayuguchi
Masamitsu Kamada
Nobuyoshi Shiozawa
Takuya Honda
The University of Tokyo · JPMisasa Onsen Hospital · JPOkayama University · JPPhysical Education and Medicine Research Foundation · JPTokyo University of Agriculture · JP

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe objective of this review was to summarize findings on aquatic exercise and balneotherapy and to assess the quality of systematic reviews based on randomized controlled trials.

methodsStudies were eligible if they were systematic reviews based on randomized clinical trials (with or without a meta-analysis) that included at least 1 treatment group that received aquatic exercise or balneotherapy. We searched the following databases: Cochrane Database Systematic Review, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Web of Science, JDream II, and Ichushi-Web for articles published from the year 1990 to August 17, 2008.

resultsWe found evidence that aquatic exercise had small but statistically significant effects on pain relief and related outcome measures of locomotor diseases (eg, arthritis, rheumatoid diseases, and low back pain). However, long-term effectiveness was unclear. Because evidence was lacking due to the poor methodological quality of balneotherapy studies, we were unable to make any conclusions on the effects of intervention. There were frequent flaws regarding the description of excluded RCTs and the assessment of publication bias in several trials. Two of the present authors independently assessed the quality of articles using the AMSTAR checklist.

conclusionsAquatic exercise had a small but statistically significant short-term effect on locomotor diseases. However, the effectiveness of balneotherapy in curing disease or improving health remains unclear.

Indexed as

BalneologyExercise TherapyHumansHydrotherapyImmersionMeta-Analysis as TopicRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicTreatment Outcome

Identifiers

PMID19881230
PMCPMC3900774
OpenAlexW2096894643

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.