Osteopathic manipulative treatment for nonspecific low back pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Table 5 Osteopathic manipulative treatment in comparison to other interventions for acute and chronic nonspecific low back pain

Quality assessment							No. of patients		Treatment effect (95% CI)	Quality of the evidence
No. of studies	Design	Limitations	Inconsistency	Indirectness	Imprecision	Other considerations	OMT	All other interventions and sham treatment	Treatment effect (95% CI)	Quality of the evidence
Pain (follow-up 3 months; measured with: Pain VAS from 0 to 100 [worse pain]; Better indicated by lower values)
10	randomised trials	no serious limitations	serious¹	no serious indirectness	no serious imprecision	none	566	575	MD 12.91 lower (20 to 5.82 lower)	⊕ ⊕ ⊕Ο MODERATE
Functional status (follow-up 3 months; measured with: Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire, Oswestry Disability Index; Better indicated by lower values)
9	randomised trials	no serious limitations	serious¹	no serious indirectness	no serious imprecision	none	529	517	SMD 0.36 lower (0.58 to 0.14 lower)	⊕ ⊕ ⊕Ο MODERATE

¹I2 = 86%.
Abbreviations: CI Confidence interval, MD Mean difference, OMT Osteopathic manipulative treatment, SMD Standard mean difference, VAS Visual analogue scale.