ArticleContemporary clinical trials2023
Acupuncture for chronic low back pain in older adults: Design and protocol for the BackInAction pragmatic clinical trial.
Article in Contemporary clinical trials, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 9 papers.
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.
Pragmatic Trial of Acupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults
Efficacy of Prolotherapy in Acupoints in Chronic Non-specific Low Back Pain (cLBP) - A Randomized Control Trial
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Acupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2025Trial
- Baseline sample characteristics for the BackInAction pragmatic trial of acupuncture for chronic low back pain in older adults.Contemporary clinical trials · 2025Trial
- Collection of implementation-related data in pragmatic clinical trials: a cross-sectional study from the NIH Pragmatic Trials Collaboratory.Implementation science communications · 2026Article
- Intervention delivery complexity and adaptations for implementation of non-pharmacologic pain interventions.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2025Article
- 2021 American Society of Acupuncturists Survey on Acupuncturists' Backgrounds, Interests, and Attitudes toward Conducting Research.Medical acupuncture · 2024Article
- Prior acupuncture experience among elderly participants enrolled in a clinical trial of acupuncture for chronic low back pain: Implications for future trials.Integrative medicine research · 2024Article
- The State of 21st Century Acupuncture in the United States.Journal of pain research · 2024Article
- Recruitment and Retention for an Acupuncture Trial in an Underrepresented 65 and Older Population With Chronic Low Back Pain.Global advances in integrative medicine and healthArticle
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 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBack pain prevalence and burden increase with age; approximately one-third of U.S. adults 65 years of age and older experience lower back pain (LBP). For chronic low back pain (cLBP), typically defined as lasting three months or longer, many treatments for younger adults may be inappropriate for older adults given their greater prevalence of comorbidities with attendant polypharmacy. While acupuncture has been demonstrated to be safe and effective for cLBP in adults overall, few studies of acupuncture have either included or focused on adults ≥65 years old.
methodsThe BackInAction study is a pragmatic, multi-site, three-arm, parallel-groups randomized controlled trial designed to test the effectiveness of acupuncture needling for improving back pain-related disability among 807 older adults ≥65 years old with cLBP. Participants are randomized to standard acupuncture (SA; up to 15 treatment sessions across 12 weeks), enhanced acupuncture (EA; SA during first 12 weeks and up to 6 additional sessions across the following 12 weeks), and usual medical care (UMC) alone. Participants are followed for 12 months with study outcomes assessed monthly with the primary outcome timepoint at 6 months. DISCUSSION: The BackInAction study offers an opportunity to further understand the effectiveness, dose-dependence, and safety of acupuncture in a Medicare population. Additionally, study results may encourage broader adoption of more effective, safer, and more satisfactory options to the continuing over-reliance on opioid- and invasive medical treatments for cLBP among older adults.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04982315. Clinical trial registration date: July 29, 2021.
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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.