The prognosis of acute and persistent low-back pain: a meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although low-back pain is a highly prevalent condition, its clinical course remains uncertain. Our main objective was to systematically review the literature on the clinical course of pain and disability in patients with acute and persistent low-back pain. Our secondary objective was to investigate whether pain and disability have similar courses.

Methods

We performed a meta-analysis of inception cohort studies. We identified eligible studies by searching MEDLINE, Embase and CINAHL. We included prospective studies that enrolled an episode-inception cohort of patients with acute or persistent low-back pain and that measured pain, disability or recovery. Two independent reviewers extracted data and assessed methodologic quality. We used mixed models to determine poo

SUBMITTER: da C Menezes Costa L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3414626 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature