Table 1 Summary of inclusion–exclusion criteria
Inclusion | Exclusion | |
|---|---|---|
Population/Illness | Adult (≥ 18 years) with chronic low back pain (≥ 12 weeks) | Non-human subjects; human objects (e.g., tissues, fMRI, MRI, CT etc.), children and adolescents (< 18 years old); fictitious/actor patients, patients with acute, sub-acute or mixed samples of low back pain |
Treatment Setting | Universally accepted/clinically recognised forms of conservative care (i.e., non-pharmacological and non-invasive) occurring in a clinical setting (in-patient or out-patient), primary or secondary healthcare (private or public) or where it was expressly articulated that the site involves regular delivery of therapeutic care (e.g., University clinic, community care centre) | Excluded if treatment related to palliative care, emergency medicine or experimental laboratory environments |
Intervention | Conservative care approaches/strategies which potentially alter clinical outcomes through the explicit modulation or measurement of at least one of the five contextual factors relating to the health encounter | Excluding pharmacological or surgical interventions; acupuncture, injections, or invasive procedures; neurological experiments or imaging; interventions targeting adherence to analgesic medication, diet modification/nutritional supplements; interventions involving alternative medicine; online, app-based or telehealth interventions |
Comparators | No treatment or intervention (e.g., waiting-list control or natural history group), no control group (i.e., uncontrolled study), standard/usual care, or neutral, negative, or an experimentally dosed and/or opposite or contextually comparative condition | Two-armed trial or two-group design whereby the description indicates a standard placebo-controlled trial (where the comparison group involved a “sham” condition perceived to be an “inert” placebo) |
Outcomes | Validated pain or physical functioning/disability measures (e.g., used during routine clinical care) | Non-validated pain or physical functioning/disability measures or sub-scales |
Study Design | Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs); quasi-experimental designs, or prospective longitudinal studies | Retrospective/secondary analyses, qualitative studies, cross-sectional designs, n-of-1 trial; conference abstracts, dissertations, and trial protocols |