Trial reportTrials2014
Effectiveness of Chinese massage therapy (Tui Na) for chronic low back pain: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Trials, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01973010 (Phase 1 Study of Massage Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain), which is not on this map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Phase 1 Study of Massage Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Visual analysis of research hotspots and trends of external therapies in traditional Chinese medicine for chronic pain.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Effectiveness of tuina and physiotherapy to manage pain for patients with chronic low back pain: a pragmatic randomized clinical trial.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2026Trial
- Effectiveness of self-applied acupressure for cervical pain of benign origin (EDIDO-CUH): a randomized controlled clinical trial.Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society · 2021Trial
- Trial
- Tuina therapy for chronic nonspecific low back pain: a randomized clinical trial protocol.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Multimodal non-invasive non-pharmacological therapies for chronic pain: mechanisms and progress.BMC medicine · 2023Review
- Tui Na for painful peripheral neuropathy in people with human immunodeficiency virus: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial protocol.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Feasibility of therapeutic Chinese massage (tui na) for peripheral neuropathy among people with human immunodeficiency virus: findings of a pilot randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Understanding Traditional Chinese Medicine Therapeutics: An Overview of the Basics and Clinical Applications.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Observational
- Bibliometric Analysis of Traditional Chinese Medicine Scientific Production between 1982 and 2016 Indexed in PubMed.Medicines (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
- Effectiveness of Massage Therapy and Abdominal Hypopressive Gymnastics in Nonspecific Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2018Article
- Danger of injudicious use of tui-na therapy in ankylosing spondylitis.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 · 2017Article
- Characteristics of Traditional Chinese Medicine Use in Pediatric Dislocations, Sprains and Strains.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2017Article
- Clinical Evidence of Chinese Massage Therapy (Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLow back pain is a common, disabling musculoskeletal disorder in both developing and developed countries. Although often recommended, the potential efficacy of massage therapy in general, and Chinese massage (tuina) in particular, for relief of chronic low back pain (CLBP) has not been fully established due to inadequate sample sizes, low methodological quality, and subclinical dosing regimens of trials to date. Thus, the purpose of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of tuina massage therapy versus conventional analgesics for CLBP. METHODS/
designThe present study is a single center, two-arm, open-label RCT. A total of 150 eligible CLBP patients will be randomly assigned to either a tuina treatment group or a conventional drug control group in a 1:1 ratio. Patients in the tuina group receive a 20 minutes, 4-step treatment protocol which includes both structural and relaxation massage, administered in 20 sessions over a period of 4 weeks. Patients in the conventional drug control group are instructed to take a specific daily dose of ibuprofen. The primary outcome measure is the change from baseline back pain and function, measured by Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire, at two months. Secondary outcome measures include the visual analogue scale, Japanese orthopedic association score (JOAS), and McGill pain questionnaire. DISCUSSION: The design and methodological rigor of this trial will allow for collection of valuable data to evaluate the efficacy of a specific tuina protocol for treating CLBP. This trial will therefore contribute to providing a solid foundation for clinical treatment of CLBP, as well as future research in massage therapy.
trial registrationThis trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov of the National Institute of Health on 22 October 2013 (http://NCT01973010).
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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.