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Evidence summaries

Group Education for Patients with Low Back Pain

Group education is probably not effective for people with low back pain. Level of evidence: "D"

A systematic review 1 including 13 studies (9 RCTs) with a total of 2 052 subjects was abstracted in DARE.

Of the 13 studies only 6 were found to be sufficiently well-designed to be discussed. Of the 4 studies which focused on chronic back pain subjects, one found a positive short-term effect on pain intensity. In the 2 studies with acute cases group education was found by 1 study to reduce pain duration and initial sick leave duration in the short-term. However, the intervention also included work-site visits. The 6 studies provided no evidence of benefit for group education on any of the long-term outcome measures.

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by study limitations and inconsistency of results.

    References

    • Cohen JE, Goel V, Frank JW, Bombardier C, Peloso P, Guillemin F. Group education interventions for people with low back pain. An overview of the literature. Spine 1994 Jun 1;19(11):1214-22. [PubMed] [DARE]

Primary/Secondary Keywords