ArticleChiropractic & manual therapies2024
Waste not, want not: call to action for spinal manipulative therapy researchers.
Article in Chiropractic & manual therapies, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 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
8 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Research Waste in Randomised Control Trials of Spinal Manipulative Therapy for Chronic Low Back Pain: Evidence From Trial Sequential Analysis.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Brain functional changes following spinal manipulation therapy in patients with lumbar disc herniation and chronic low back pain: a scoping review.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Appropriate translational designs for determining causal force-based (manual therapy) treatment mechanisms.Musculoskeletal science & practice · 2026Review
- Spinal manipulation in acute low back pain patients is associated with reduced motor-unit firing variability without altering bilateral coordination: a single-motor-unit EMG study of the lumbar multifidus.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2026Article
- Spinal Manipulative Therapy on a Healthy Population: Protocol for a Randomized Blinding Feasibility Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Spinal manipulation/mobilization: past, present, future.Chiropractic & manual therapies · 2025Article
- Neuromuscular Response to High-Velocity, Low-Amplitude Spinal Manipulation-An Overview.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundResearch waste is defined as research outcomes with no or minimal societal benefits. It is a widespread problem in the healthcare field. Four primary sources of research waste have been defined: (1) irrelevant or low priority research questions, (2) poor design or methodology, (3) lack of publication, and (4) biased or inadequate reporting. This commentary, which was developed by a multidisciplinary group of researchers with spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) research expertise, discusses waste in SMT research and provides suggestions to improve future research. MAIN TEXT: This commentary examines common sources of waste in SMT research, focusing on design and methodological issues, by drawing on prior research and examples from clinical and mechanistic SMT studies. Clinical research is dominated by small studies and studies with a high risk of bias. This problem is compounded by systematic reviews that pool heterogenous data from varying populations, settings, and application of SMT. Research focusing on the mechanisms of SMT often fails to address the clinical relevance of mechanisms, relies on very short follow-up periods, and has inadequate control for contextual factors.
conclusionsThis call to action is directed to researchers in the field of SMT. It is critical that the SMT research community act to improve the way research is designed, conducted, and disseminated. We present specific key action points and resources, which should enhance the quality and usefulness of future SMT research.
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.