Abstract
Background: Exercising and education strategies appear to be effective at reducing pain and enhancing life in adults with persistent low back pain, in particular in fitness care populations. Aim: This work aims to determine the effect of preventive strategies e.g. exercises and education on low back pain patients. Materials and Methods: A systematic search was performed over different medical databases to identify Internal medicine studies, which studied the outcome of the intervention group versus the Control group of low back pain patients. Using the meta-analysis process, either with fixed or random-effects models, we conducted a meta-analysis on the incidence of low back pain as a primary outcome, and on the number of patients on sick leave as a secondary outcome. Results: Six studies were identified involving 8632 patients, 2980 patients in the intervention group, and 5652 patients in the Control group. The meta-analysis process revealed a highly significant decrease in the incidence of low back pain, in the Intervention group compared to the Control group (p=0.007). The meta-analysis process also revealed a highly significant decrease in the incidence of sick leave, in the Intervention group compared to the Control group (p<0.01). Conclusion: To conclude, the addition of a short education program on active management to usual care in primary care leads to small but consistent improvements in disability, pain, and quality of life. The addition of a short physiotherapy program composed of education on postural hygiene and exercise intended to be continued at home, increases those improvements, although the magnitude of that increase is clinically irrelevant.