Cost-effectiveness of physiotherapeutic interventions for low back pain: a systematic review

Abstract

Background: Due to the rapid increase in healthcare costs of low back pain (LBP), it is important to provide clinically effective and cost-effective interventions to individuals with the condition.

Objective: To evaluate all recent economic evaluations of physiotherapeutic interventions for patients with LBP.

Data sources: A literature search of Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, MEDLINE, the National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database, Health Technology Assessment and Database of Abstracts of Review of Effects (January 2008 to October 2018) was undertaken.

Study selection: Randomised controlled trials and cohort studies that assessed the cost- effectiveness of physiotherapeutic interventions on patients with LBP compared with a control group were included in this review. A Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards checklist was used to assess the quality of studies.

Data extraction/data synthesis: Two authors extracted data independently. A descriptive synthesis was conducted to summarise the data.

Results: In total, 1531 articles were identified and 11 studies met the inclusion criteria for this review. The total number of study participants in this review was 2633 and their ages ranged from 18 to 80 years. The duration of LBP in these patients ranged from 3 weeks to 1 year. Excluding one study, all studies reported that the physiotherapeutic intervention was cost-effective compared with the control arm. Meta-analysis was not possible due to heterogeneity of the studies.

Conclusion: Although most studies in this review suggested that physiotherapeutic interventions were cost-effective, it is difficult to pool their results for conclusive evidence. Systematic review registration number CRD: 42018089773.

Keywords: Cost-effectiveness; Low back pain; Physiotherapy; Systematic review.