Completeness of Outcomes Description Reported in Low Back Pain Rehabilitation Interventions: A Survey of 185 Randomized Trials.

To assess reporting completeness of the most frequent outcome measures used in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of rehabilitation interventions for mechanical low back pain. We performed a cross-sectional study of RCTs included in all Cochrane systematic reviews (SRs) published up to May 2013. Two authors independently evaluated the type and frequency of each outcome measure reported, the methods used to measure outcomes, the completeness of outcome reporting using a eight-item checklist, and the proportion of outcomes fully replicable by an independent assessor.

Reporting of Rehabilitation Intervention for Low Back Pain in Randomized Controlled Trials: Is the Treatment Fully Replicable?

Study Design: Methodological review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Objective: To assess the quality of reporting of rehabilitation interventions for mechanical low back pain (LBP) in published RCTs.

Summary Of Background Data: Reporting of interventions in RCTs often focused on the outcome value and failed to describe interventions adequately.