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

Table 7 Osteopathic manipulative treatment in comparison to usual obstetric care, sham ultrasound and untreated for nonspecific low back pain in pregnant women

Quality assessment							No. of patients		Treatment effect (95% CI)	Quality of the evidence
No. of studies	Design	Limitations	Inconsistency	Indirectness	Imprecision	Other considerations	OMT	Usual obstetric care, sham ultrasound and untreated	Treatment effect (95% CI)	Quality of the evidence
Pain (measured with: Pain VAS from 0 to 100 [worse pain]; Better indicated by lower values)
3	randomised trials	no serious limitations	serious¹	no serious indirectness	serious²	none	99	143	MD 23.01 lower (44.13 to 1.88 lower)	⊕ ⊕ ΟΟ LOW
Functional status (measured with: Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire, Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale; Better indicated by lower values)
3	randomised trials	no serious limitations	serious³	no serious indirectness	serious²	none	99	143	SMD 0.80 lower (1.36 to 0.23 lower)	⊕ ⊕ ΟΟ LOW

¹I2 = 91%.
²Sample size < 400.
³I2 = 76%.
Abbreviations: CI Confidence interval, MD Mean difference, OMT Osteopathic manipulative treatment, SMD Standard mean difference, VAS Visual analogue scale.