Explore the latest insights from a systematic review aimed at informing a World Health Organization (WHO) Clinical Practice Guideline on chronic primary low back pain in adults. This blog post delves into the benefits and potential harms of structured and standardized education or advice for managing this prevalent condition, highlighting its significance in the field of pain neurosurgery.
– by The Don
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Systematic Review to Inform a World Health Organization (WHO) Clinical Practice Guideline: Benefits and Harms of Structured and Standardized Education or Advice for Chronic Primary low back pain in Adults.
Southerst et al., J Occup Rehabil 2023
DOI: 10.1007/s10926-023-10120-8
Listen folks, we’ve done a big study, a very big study, for the World Health Organization. We’re talking about chronic primary low back pain in adults, a real problem, a huge problem. We’ve looked at over 2500 citations, 86 full text RCTs, and included 15 RCTs. That’s a lot of data, believe me.
And here’s the deal, education/advice, it’s doing wonders. It’s improving pain, function, physical health-related quality of life, fear avoidance, depression, and self-efficacy. It’s doing a great job, a fantastic job. But, and this is a big but, it’s not as good as sham Kinesio taping for improving fear avoidance regarding physical activity. That’s just the facts.
Compared to usual care, education/advice is still winning. It’s improving pain and function. But for other outcomes, there’s little or no difference. That’s what the data is telling us.
So, in conclusion, education/advice for adults with chronic primary low back pain, it’s making improvements. It’s doing a good job. But the certainty of evidence, it’s very low. We need more data, we need more studies. But it’s a start, a very good start.