ReviewEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2014
Responder analyses in randomised controlled trials for chronic low back pain: an overview of currently used methods.
Review in European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 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
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- PEER systematic review of randomized controlled trials: Management of chronic low back pain in primary care.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2021Pooled it
- The effectiveness of generic self-management interventions for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain on physical function, self-efficacy, pain intensity and physical activity: A systematic review and meta-analysis.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2018Pooled it
- The effect of experimentally induced acute pain on lumbar movement control: a single blinded three-arm cross-over randomized control trial.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2026Trial
- Use of Complementary and Integrative Health Therapies Before Intensive Functional Restoration in Active Duty Service Members with Chronic Pain.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2022Trial
- How much does the Dallas Pain Questionnaire score have to improve to indicate that patients with chronic low back pain feel better or well?European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2016Trial
- Managing Vulvovaginal Atrophy, in Postmenopausal Women, Without Hormones: Efficacy of a Hyaluronic Acid Vaginal Moisturizer.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Efficacy of spinal manipulative therapy in older adults with chronic spinal conditions: an updated systematic review.The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association · 2026Article
- Determining the Impact of a Physiotherapist-Led Primary Care Model for Low Back Pain: Protocol and Analysis Plan for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial and Embedded Process Evaluation.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Article
- Improving Rehabilitation Research to Optimize Care and Outcomes for People with Chronic Primary Low Back Pain: Methodological and Reporting Recommendations from a WHO Systematic Review Series.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2023Article
- Statistical Evaluation of Responder Analysis in Stem Cell Clinical Trials.Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science · 2023Article
- Statistical Evaluation of Absolute Change versus Responder Analysis in Clinical Trials.Acta materia medica · 2022Article
- What can we learn from long-term studies on chronic low back pain? A scoping review.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2022Article
- Time to evolve: the applicability of pain phenotyping in manual therapy.The Journal of manual & manipulative therapy · 2022Article
- 'Next steps' for researching orthopedic manual therapy.The Journal of manual & manipulative therapy · 2021Article
- Trajectories of Disability and Low Back Pain Impact: 2-year Follow-up of the Groningen Spine Cohort.Spine · 2020Article
- Article
- Responsiveness, Reliability, and Minimally Important and Minimal Detectable Changes of 3 Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for Low Back Pain: Validation Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Article
- A Novel Modality for Facet Joint Denervation: Cooled Radiofrequency Ablation for Lumbar Facet Syndrome. A Case Series.Physical medicine and rehabilitation internationalArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo provide an overview and a critical appraisal of the use of responder analyses in published randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of interventions for chronic low back pain (LBP). The methodology used for the analyses, including the justification, as well as the implications of responder analyses on the conclusions was explored.
methodsA convenience sample of four systematic reviews evaluating 162 RCTs of interventions for chronic LBP was used to identify individual trials. Randomised trials were screened by two reviewers and included if they performed and reported a responder analysis (i.e. the proportion of participants achieving a pre-defined level of improvement). The cutoff value for responders, the period of follow-up, and the outcome measure used were extracted. Information on how RCT authors justified the methodology of their responder analyses was also appraised.
resultsTwenty-eight articles (17%) using 20 different definitions of responders were included in this appraisal. Justification for the definition of responders was absent in 80% of the articles. Pain was the most frequently used domain for the definition of response (50%), followed by back-specific function (30%) and a combination of pain and function (20%). A reduction in pain intensity ≥50% was the most common threshold used to define responders (IQR 33-60%).
conclusionsFew RCTs of interventions for chronic LBP report responder analyses. Where responder analyses are used, the methods are inconsistent. When performing responder analyses authors are encouraged to follow the recommended guidelines, using empirically derived cutoffs, and present results alongside mean differences.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.