This study gave no evidence that 8 treatments with individually instructed motor control exercises or sling exercises were superior to general exercises for chronic low back pain.

BackgroundLow back pain is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Exercise therapy is widely recommended to treat persistent non-specific low back pain. While evidence suggests exercise is, on average, moderately effective, there remains uncertainty about which individuals might benefit the most from exercise.MethodsIn parallel with a Cochrane review update, we requested individual participant data (IPD) from high-quality randomised clinical trials of adults with our two primary outcomes of interest, pain and functional limitations, and calculated global recovery. We compiled a master data set including baseline participant characteristics, exercise and comparison characteristics, and outcomes at short-term, moderate-term and long-term follow-up. We conducted descriptive analyses and one-stage IPD meta-analysis using multilevel mixed-effects regression of the overall treatment effect and prespecified potential treatment effect modifiers.ResultsWe received IPD for 27 trials (3514 participants). For studies included in this analysis, compared with no treatment/usual care, exercise therapy on average reduced pain (mean effect/100 (95% CI) −10.7 (−14.1 to –7.4)), a result compatible with a clinically important 20% smallest worthwhile effect. Exercise therapy reduced functional limitations with a clinically important 23% improvement (mean effect/100 (95% CI) −10.2 (−13.2 to –7.3)) at short-term follow-up. Not having heavy physical demands at work and medication use for low back pain were potential treatment effect modifiers—these were associated with superior exercise outcomes relative to non-exercise comparisons. Lower body mass index was also associated with better outcomes in exercise compared with no treatment/usual care. This study was limited by inconsistent availability and measurement of participant characteristics.ConclusionsThis study provides potentially useful information to help treat patients and design future studies of exercise interventions that are better matched to specific subgroups.Protocol publicationhttps://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-1-64

Abdominal muscle onset was largely unaffected by 8 weeks of exercises in chronic LBP patients. There was no association between change in onset and LBP. Large individual variations in activation pattern of the deep abdominal muscles may justify exploration of differential effects in subgroups of LBP.

ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate the prospective influence of multisite pain, depression, anxiety, self-rated health and pain-related disability on recovery from chronic low back pain (LBP).SettingThe data is derived from the second (1995–1997) and third (2006–2008) wave of the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT) in Norway.ParticipantsThe study population comprises 4484 women and 3039 men in the Norwegian HUNT Study who reported chronic LBP at baseline in 1995–1997.Primary outcome measuresThe primary outcome was recovery from chronic LBP at the 11-year follow-up. Persons not reporting pain and/or stiffness for at least three consecutive months during the last year were defined as recovered. A Poisson regression model was used to estimate adjusted risk ratios (RRs) with 95% CIs.ResultsAt follow-up, 1822 (40.6%) women and 1578 (51.9%) men reported recovery from chronic LBP. The probability of recovery was inversely associated with number of pain sites (P-trend<0.001). Compared with reporting 2–3 pain sites, persons with only LBP had a slightly higher probability of recovery (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.98 to 1.22 in women and RR 1.10, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.21 in men), whereas people reporting 6–9 pain sites had substantially lower probability of recovery (RR 0.58, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.63 in women and RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.79 in men). Poor/not so good self-rated general health, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and pain-related disability in work and leisure were all associated with reduced probability of recovery, but there was no statistical interaction between multisite pain and these comorbidities.ConclusionsIncreasing number of pain sites was inversely associated with recovery from chronic LBP. In addition, factors such as poor self-rated health, psychological symptoms and pain-related disability may further reduce the probability of recovery from chronic LBP.

Improved transversus abdominis lateral slide among participants with low baseline slide was associated with clinically important long-term pain reduction. High baseline slide and delayed onset of abdominal muscles after the intervention period were weakly associated with higher pain at 1-year follow-up. Clinical Trial Registration number The study was preregistered in ClinicalTrials.gov with identifier NCT00201513.