Impact of quality scales on levels of evidence inferred from a systematic review of exercise therapy and low back pain

Ref ID 261
First Author F. Colle
Journal ARCHIVES OF PHYSICAL MEDICINE & REHABILITATION
Year Of Publishing 2002
URL https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12474181/
Keywords • Risk of bias
• Physiotherapy
• Cochrane
Problem(s) • Flawed risk of bias undertaken
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Small analytical study
First Author Country France
Aim To assess whether the scale used affects levels of evidence inferred from a systematic review of studies on exercise therapy and chronic low back pain, 20 trials previously analysed in a systematic review were assessed by 2 readers using 16 different scales.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings Re-analysing 20 trials from one published systematic review using 16 different quality assessment scales found that two of the 3 main results of the systematic review were influenced by the scale used. There was conflicting evidence on the effectiveness of exercise therapy compared with inactive treatments; strong evidence that exercise therapy is more effective than usual care by a general practitioner. The use of summary scores to identify physical therapy trials of high quality is questionable.
Number of systematic reviews included 1
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 1
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted No
Interpretation impacted description