ArticlePrimary health care research & development2020
Management of non-specific low back pain in primary care - A systematic overview of recommendations from international evidence-based guidelines.
Article in Primary health care research & development, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Exercise prescription for improving chronic low back pain in adults: a network meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Treatment of Refractory Low Back Pain Using Passive Recharge Burst in Patients Without Options for Corrective Surgery: Findings and Results From the DISTINCT Study, a Prospective Randomized Multicenter Controlled Trial.Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Research Trends and Insights in Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain: Bibliometric Analysis (1996-2025).Pain research & management · 2026Review
- Trends Over Time in the Use, Carbon Footprint and Costs of Facet Joint Injections and Medial Branch Blocks to Manage Lumbar Pain in England: Retrospective Analysis of an Administrative Dataset.Global spine journal · 2025Article
- Integrative and Complementary Health Practices for Chronic Pain: summary of clinical guideline recommendations.Epidemiologia e servicos de saude : revista do Sistema Unico de Saude do Brasil · 2025Review
- Invasive laser acupuncture vs. electroacupuncture for non-specific chronic low back pain: protocol for a randomized clinical trial.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Recent clinical practice guidelines for the management of low back pain: a global comparison.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2024Article
- Does Osteopathic Heart-Focused Palpation Modify Heart Rate Variability in Stressed Participants with Musculoskeletal Pain? A Randomised Controlled Pilot Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The test-retest reliability and minimal clinically important difference of the Dubousset Functional Test and its correlation with Rolland Morris disability questionnaire in chronic non-specific low back pain.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 · 2023Article
- Digital Therapeutics (DTx) Expand Multimodal Treatment Options for Chronic Low Back Pain: The Nexus of Precision Medicine, Patient Education, and Public Health.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Chronic Low Back Pain: A Narrative Review of Recent International Guidelines for Diagnosis and Conservative Treatment.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Effectiveness of coordinated care to reduce the risk of prolonged disability among patients suffering from subacute or recurrent acute low back pain in primary care: protocol of the CO.LOMB cluster-randomized, controlled study.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Article
- Safety and efficacy of 650 nm invasive laser acupuncture on non-specific chronic low back pain: A protocol for a multicenter randomized placebo-controlled trial.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Article
- More than one third of clinical practice guidelines on low back pain overlap in AGREE II appraisals. Research wasted?BMC medical research methodology · 2022Article
- The Main Role of Diaphragm Muscle as a Mechanism of Hypopressive Abdominal Gymnastics to Improve Non-Specific Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
- A Role for Superficial Heat Therapy in the Management of Non-Specific, Mild-to-Moderate Low Back Pain in Current Clinical Practice: A Narrative Review.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- The care pathway of individuals with spinal disorders in a Health Care Network in the Federal District, Brazil: a retrospective study.Brazilian journal of physical therapyArticle
- Referral of people with low back pain to physical therapists in Brazilian primary healthcare: A challenge revealed.Brazilian journal of physical therapyObservational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimSystematic identification, characterization and analysis of recommendations concerning the diagnosis and treatment of non-specific low back pain (LBP) in primary care provided in international evidence-based guidelines from high-income countries.
backgroundLBP is one of the most common reasons for consulting a primary care physician and its prevalence is higher in high-income than in middle- or low-income countries. The majority of LBP is non-specific and treatment recommendations are not often based on high-quality and patient-oriented evidence.
methodsWe systematically searched PubMed and major guideline databases from 2013 to 2020. Two independent reviewers performed literature selection and the quality assessment of included guidelines using the AGREE II tool. We extracted all relevant recommendations including the corresponding Grade of Recommendation. We grouped all included recommendations by topic and compared them to each other.
findingsThis overview includes 10 current guidelines and overall 549 relevant recommendations. Recommendations covered aspects of assessment and diagnosis (15%), non-pharmacological interventions (46%), pharmacological interventions (26%), invasive treatments (8%) and multimodal pain management (5%). In total, 30% of all recommendations were strong and 57% weak or very weak. The proportion of recommendations for and against an intervention was 45% and 38%, respectively. The recommendations from the different guidelines were largely in good agreement. We identify only a small number of contradictory recommendations, mostly dealing with very specific interventions.
conclusionIn conclusion, current evidence-based guidelines published in high-income countries provide recommendations for all major aspects of the management of people with LBP in primary care. Recommendations from different guidelines were largely consistent. More than 50% of these recommendations were weak or very weak and a high proportion of recommendation advised against an intervention.
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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.