- Title
- Individual Patient Education for Managing Acute and/or Subacute Low Back Pain: Little Additional Benefit for Pain and Function Compared to Placebo. A Systematic Review With Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
- Creator
- Piano, Leonardo; Ritorto, Valentina; Vigna, Irene; Trucco, Marco; Lee, Hopin; Chiarotto, Alessandro
- Relation
- Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy Vol. 52, Issue 7, p. 432-445
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2022.10698
- Publisher
- Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, Inc.
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2022
- Description
- Objective: To evaluate the effects of individual patient education for managing acute and/or subacute low back pain (LBP), compared to no intervention/placebo education, noneducational interventions, or other type of education. Design: Systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized trials. Literature Search: PubMed, CINAHL, PEDro, Embase, Scopus, and CENTRAL (up to September 30, 2020); reference lists of previous systematic reviews. Study Selection Criteria: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating individual education for patients with acute and/or subacute LBP. Data Synthesis: Random-effects meta-analysis for clinically homogeneous RCTs. Certainty of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach. Results: We included 13 RCTs. There was moderate certainty evidence that individual patient education was more effective than placebo education for pain at medium term (mean difference [MD], −0.79; 95% confidence interval [CI]: −1.52, −0.07) and physical function at short term (standardized mean difference [SMD], −0.25; 95% CI: −0.47, −0.02) and medium term (SMD, −0.26; 95% CI: −0.48, −0.04), but with no clinically relevant effects. There was low-to-moderate certainty evidence that individual patient education was superior to noneducational interventions on short-term quality of life (MD, −12.00; 95% CI: −20.05, −3.95) and medium-term sick leave (odds ratio = 0.32; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.88). We found no clinically relevant between-group effects for any other comparison (low-to-high certainty of evidence) at any follow-up. Conclusion: One or 2 hours of individual patient education probably makes little to no difference in pain and functional outcomes compared with placebo for patients with acute and/or subacute LBP. Considering its effects on other outcomes (eg, reassurance) and patients' desire for information about their condition, it is reasonable to retain patient education as part of a first-line approach when managing acute and subacute LBP.
- Subject
- low back/lumbar spine; pain; systematic review/meta-analysis
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1486145
- Identifier
- uon:51785
- Identifier
- ISSN:0190-6011
- Language
- eng
- Reviewed
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