ArticleAfrican health sciences2014
Management of LBP at primary care level in South Africa: up to standards?
Article in African health sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- An update on the prevalence of low back pain in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analyses.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2018Pooled it
- Feasibility of evaluating the effectiveness of an interprofessional rehabilitation program for people with chronic low back pain in Ethiopia: a pilot randomized control trial protocol.Pilot and feasibility studies · 2026Article
- Perception gaps between healthcare professionals and people with CLBP: an online survey of current primary care management practices in the United Kingdom.Annals of medicine · 2025Article
- 'Sometimes I feel like the only physio in the whole wide world, so alone'.The South African journal of physiotherapy · 2025Article
- 'Pain free if I ever will be': lived experience of workers seeking care for pain attributed to musculoskeletal disorders.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2024Article
- Low back pain treatment adherence barriers in Eswatini private physiotherapy practices: A pilot study.The South African journal of physiotherapy · 2024Article
- Understanding how patients' pain beliefs influence chronic low back pain management in Ghana: a grounded theory approach.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Exploring patients' lived experience on the barriers to accessing low back pain health services.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2022Article
- Functioning Problems Associated with Health Conditions with Greatest Disease Burden in South Africa: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- A cross-sectional hospital-based study of correlates of disability in patients with chronic low back pain in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2022Article
- A Scoping Review on the Epidemiology of Chronic Low Back Pain among Adults in Sub-Saharan Africa.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The prevalence and psychosocial risk factors of chronic low back pain in KwaZulu-Natal.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2022Article
- Management of Low Back Pain in Primary Health-Care Settings: Physician's Awareness and Practices Based on Red Flags.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2022Article
- Article
- Nonspecific chronic low back pain conditions and therapeutic practices in Burkina Faso.The South African journal of physiotherapy · 2022Article
- Physiotherapy services in patient care in Bhutan.Human resources for health · 2021Article
- Back pain in pregnant women attending an antenatal clinic in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2021Article
- Rehabilitation needs in individuals with knee OA in rural Western Cape, South Africa: an exploratory qualitative study.Primary health care research & development · 2020Article
- The Global Spine Care Initiative: a narrative review of psychological and social issues in back pain in low- and middle-income communities.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 · 2018Review
- Item response theory evaluation of the biomedical scale of the Pain Attitudes and Beliefs Scale.PloS one · 2018Article
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 at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPrimary Health Care (PHC) is well suited for management of low back pain (LBP). Prevalence of (chronic) LBP is suspected to be high among visitors of the South African primary care centers, but currently no information exists on prevalence or guideline adherence.
objectivesTo establish if treatment received for LBP in public PHC in the Cape Town area compares with international evidence based guidelines.
methodsCluster randomization determined the 8 community health centres where the study took place. A measurement tool was developed and validated for this population. Descriptive analysis and logistic regression analytical techniques were applied.
results489 participants (mean age: 44.8) were included in this study. Lifetime prevalence was 73.2% and 26.3% suffered from chronic low back pain (CLBP) . Pain medication was the only form of treatment received by 90% of the sample. Interventions received seemed to be unrelated to type of LBP (acute, sub acute and chronic). Referral to physiotherapy, education and advice to stay active were rarely done. Participants expressed low satisfaction with treatment.
conclusionsCurrent management of LBP at PHC level appears to be ineffective and not conform guidelines. Further South African research should focus on barriers as well as measures to be taken for implementation of LBP guidelines.
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.