The management of lower back pain using pilates method: assessment of content exercise reporting in RCTs

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the quality of the reporting of exercise interventions with Pilates method for the treatment of lower back pain (LBP) in adults.

Materials and methods

Two independent evaluators selected randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of moderate and high methodological quality included in a Cochrane Systematic Review (SR) and from an additional updated search in the following databases: CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PEDro and SPORTDiscus. Three assessment tools (Consensus on Therapeutic Exercise Training (CONTENT) scale, Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist and Consensus on Exercise Reporting Template (CERT) checklist) were utilized by three pairs of two independent researchers trained. The scales’ concordance was measured using the Kappa coefficient.

Results

Ten RCTs were included. The CONTENT scale score was 5.3 (± 1.33) out of 9 points; the TIDieR checklist was 8.5 (± 1.71) out of 12 points and the CERT checklist was 9.5 (± 3.62) out of 19 points. The CONTENT and CERT had moderate concordance, while there was fair concordance between the other tools.

Conclusions

The overall reporting quality for the Pilates exercises in ten moderate-to-high quality RTCs for the management of LBP was low according to CONTENT scale and CERT checklist and high according to TIDieR checklist.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Reporting of Pilates exercise program in moderate-to-high quality RCTs for the management of lower back pain remains incomplete.

• Pilates exercise program should be personalized and contextualized to individual participants.

• There may be a need to consider adding to or combining the information available from various trials.

Keywords:

• Exercise therapy
• mind-body therapies
• low back pain
• systematic review
• randomized controlled trials
• intervention reporting

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the authors of the Yamato’s Cochrane SR (2015) who provided their systematic search and shared the references of their included RCTs and also the contributions from MSc Felipe Granado de Souza, the biostatistician, Universidade Federal de São Paulo.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.