SynthesisRheumatology international2023
Balneotherapy for osteoarthritis: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Rheumatology international, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 3 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Climatotherapy in marine and dead sea environments for musculoskeletal and rheumatologic conditions: a systematic review of effectiveness and safety.International journal of biometeorology · 2026Pooled it
- Evidence-based balneotherapy in Hungary. Updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the Hungarian clinical trials.International journal of biometeorology · 2026Pooled it
- Beneficial effects of thermal waters on respiratory diseases: a systematic review.International journal of biometeorology · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of serial thermal brine hand baths on hand osteoarthritis: a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled trial.European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine · 2026Trial
- The effect of balance exercises on central sensitization in patients with knee osteoarthritis.Rheumatology international · 2024Trial
- Impact of Comprehensive Health Resort Treatment on Insomnia and Quality of Life in Older Adults: A Pre-Experimental Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Balneotherapy and Manual Therapy of Key Myofascial Trigger Points as Therapeutic Integration for COPD Associated with Myofascial Pain Syndrome: A Case Series.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Short-term clinical outcomes associated with local peloid therapy combined with exercise on pain, function, and quality of life in knee osteoarthritis.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Intensive combined balneotherapy and aquatic exercise for knee osteoarthritis: short-term clinical and functional outcomes.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Sulfurous thermal waters as nature-based health resources: a public health and sustainability perspective.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- A health resort-based intervention reduces insomnia with minimal changes in quality of life in COVID-19 survivors and non-COVID-19 controls.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Relevance of balneotherapy for osteoarthritis-a systematic literature review covering the past 5 years.Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift (1946) · 2025Review
- Hydrogen Sulfide in Balneology: Physiology, Evidence, and Clinical Translation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Cryotherapy and thermotherapy in the management of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis: A comprehensive review.Fundamental research · 2025Review
- Performance of the ChatGPT-5 Language Model in Solving a Specialty Examination in Balneology and Physical Medicine.Cureus · 2025Article
- Ethnopharmacological knowledge and physicochemical properties of hot springs in Bhutan.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2025Article
- Recent advances in injectable hydrogels for osteoarthritis treatments.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2025Review
- Impact of Spa Therapy on Symptoms and Quality of Life in Post-COVID-19 Patients with Chronic Conditions.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Electrophilic Compounds in the Human Diet and Their Role in the Induction of the Transcription Factor NRF2.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Can Digital Technologies Be Useful for Weight Loss in Individuals with Overweight or Obesity? A Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This systematic review is aimed to evaluate the effects of balneotherapy with thermal mineral water for managing the symptoms and signs of osteoarthritis located at any anatomical site. The systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA Statement. The following databases were consulted: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, DOAJ and PEDro. We included clinical trials evaluating the effects of balneotherapy as a treatment for patients with osteoarthritis, published in English and Italian language, led on human subjects. The protocol was registered in PROSPERO. Overall, 17 studies have been included in the review. All of these studies were performed on adults or elderly patients suffering from osteoarthritis localized to knees, hips, hands or lumbar spine. The treatment assessed was always the balneotherapy with thermal mineral water. The outcomes evaluated were pain, palpation/pressure sensibility, articular tenderness, functional ability, quality of life, mobility, deambulation, ability to climb stairs, medical objective and patients' subjective evaluation, superoxide dismutase enzyme activity, serum levels of interleukin-2 receptors. The results of all the included studies agree and demonstrated an improvement of all the symptoms and signs investigated. In particular, pain and quality of life were the main symptoms evaluated and both improved after the treatment with thermal water in all the studies included in the review. These effects can be attributed to physical and chemical-physical properties of thermal mineral water used. However, the quality of many studies resulted not so high due and, consequently, it is necessary to perform new clinical trial in this field using more correct methods for conducting the study and for processing statistical data.
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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.