SynthesisPain2016
Back schools for the treatment of chronic low back pain: possibility of benefit but no convincing evidence after 47 years of research-systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Pain, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06148896 (Effects of Combining Physiotherapy Group Exercise With Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Elderly With Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain), which is not on this map. Cited by 17 papers, 4 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.
Effects of Combining Physiotherapy Group Exercise With Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Elderly With Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Advances in physiotherapy for chronic low-back pain: a level I systematic review.Journal of orthopaedics and traumatology : official journal of the Italian Society of Orthopaedics and Traumatology · 2026Pooled it
- Impact of education in patients undergoing physiotherapy for lower back pain: a level I systematic review and meta-analysis.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2025Pooled it
- Rehabilitation of sick-listed LBP patients in occupational health with collaboration of the workplace.International journal of occupational medicine and environmental health · 2024Pooled it
- Patient education materials for non-specific low back pain and sciatica: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- Medical App Treatment of Non-Specific Low Back Pain in the 12-month Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial Rise-uP: Where Clinical Superiority Meets Cost Savings.Journal of pain research · 2024Trial
- Multidisciplinary expert consensus on clinical diagnosis and therapies for low back pain.Bone research · 2026Article
- Effects of Oxygen-Ozone Therapy and Physiotherapy on Functioning in Patients with Chronic Non-Specific Neck Pain: A Prospective Double-Arm Pilot Study.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2026Article
- Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain and Differences by Sex: A Longitudinal Study.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Article
- The Effects of Back Schools on Non-Specific Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Review
- Therapeutic and Preventive Efficacy of an Intervention on Workers in a Back School.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Low Back Pain-Behavior Correction by Providing Haptic Feedbacks: A Preliminary Investigation.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Impact of two ergonomics training on prevalence of upper and lower extremity complaints among nurses.Journal of education and health promotion · 2021Article
- Patient education materials for non-specific low back pain and sciatica: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2020Article
- Wearable Device to Monitor Back Movements Using an Inductive Textile Sensor.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Exercise and Chronic Pain.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2020Review
- Effectiveness of the back school program on the low back pain and functional disability of Iranian nurse.Journal of exercise rehabilitation · 2019Article
- Lifestyle Medicine for Chronic Lower Back Pain: An Evidence-Based Approach.American journal of lifestyle medicineReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Back schools are interventions that comprise exercise and education components. We aimed to systematically review the randomized controlled trial evidence on back schools for the treatment of chronic low back pain. By searching MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Central as well as bibliographies, we identified 31 studies for inclusion in our systematic review and 5 of these for inclusion in meta-analyses. Meta-analyses for pain scores and functional outcomes revealed statistical superiority of back schools vs no intervention for some comparisons but not others. No meta-analysis was feasible for the comparison of back schools vs other active treatments. Adverse events were poorly reported so that no reliable conclusions regarding the safety of back schools can be drawn, although some limited reassurance in this regard may be derived from the fact that few adverse events and no serious adverse events were reported in the back school groups in the studies that did report on safety. Overall, the evidence base for the use of back schools to treat chronic low back pain is weak; in nearly a half-century since back schools were first trialled, no unequivocal evidence of benefit has emerged.
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.