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

Table 8 Osteopathic manipulative treatment in comparison to untreated for nonspecific low back pain in postpartum 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	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)
2	randomised trials	no serious limitations	no serious inconsistency	no serious indirectness	serious¹	none	60	59	MD 41.85 lower (49.43 to 34.27 lower)	⊕ ⊕ ⊕Ο MODERATE
Functional status (measured with: Oswestry Pain Questionnaire; Better indicated by lower values)
2	randomised trials	no serious limitations	no serious inconsistency	no serious indirectness	serious¹	none	60	59	SMD 1.78 lower (2.21 to 1.35 lower)	⊕ ⊕ ⊕Ο MODERATE

¹Sample size < 400.
Abbreviations: CI Confidence interval, MD Mean difference, OMT Osteopathic manipulative treatment, SMD Standard mean difference, VAS Visual analogue scale.