Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33947367›Full record

Trial reportBMC musculoskeletal disorders2021

Assessment of a taping method combined with manual therapy as a treatment of non-specific chronic low back pain - a randomized controlled trial.

Stefan Schmidt, Nicolas Wölfle, Claudia Schultz, Dieter Sielmann, Roman Huber, Harald Walach

Open access · goldAbstract readRandomized Controlled TrialPragmatic Clinical Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
1.0field-weighted citation impact, top 25% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Risk factors and interaction effects in recurrent low back pain.American journal of translational research · 2025
    Article
  3. Review
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Stefan SchmidtDepartment for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Hauptstr. 8, 79104, Freiburg, Germany. stefan.schmidt@uniklinik-freiburg.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4858-4220
Nicolas WölfleDepartment for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Hauptstr. 8, 79104, Freiburg, Germany.
Claudia SchultzUniversity Centre for Complementary Medicine, Medical Faculty, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Dieter SielmannGP practice, Bad Oldesloe, Germany.
Roman HuberUniversity Centre for Complementary Medicine, Medical Faculty, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Harald WalachInstitute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Freiburg, Germany.
University of Freiburg · DEPoznan University of Medical Sciences · PL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundChronic low back pain is the most frequent medical problem and the condition with the most years lived with disability in Western countries. The objective of this study was to assess a new treatment, Medi-Taping, which aims at reducing complaints by treating pelvic obliquity with a combination of manual treatment of trigger points and kinesio taping in a pragmatic RCT with pilot character.

methodsOne hundred ten patients were randomized at two study centers either to Medi-Taping or to a standard treatment consisting of patient education and physiotherapy as control. Treatment duration was 3 weeks. Measures were taken at baseline, end of treatment and at follow-up after 2 months. Main outcome criteria were low back pain measured with VAS, the Chronic Pain Grade Scale (CPGS) and the Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire (ODQ).

resultsPatients of both groups benefited from the treatment by medium to large effect sizes. All effects were pointing towards the intended direction. While Medi-Taping showed slightly better improvement rates, there were no significant differences for the primary endpoints between groups at the end of treatment (VAS: mean difference in change 0.38, 95-CI [- 0.45; 1.21] p = 0.10; ODQ 2.35 [- 0.77; 5.48] p = 0.14; CPGS - 0.19 [- 0.46; 0.08] p = 0.64) and at follow-up. Health-related quality of life was significantly higher (p = .004) in patients receiving Medi-Taping compared to controls.

conclusionsMedi-Taping, a purported way of correcting pelvic obliquity and chronic tension resulting from it, is a treatment modality similar in effectiveness to complex physiotherapy and patient education.

trial registrationThis trial was registered retrospectively on July 24th, 2019 as Number DRKS00017051 in the German Register of Clinical Trials (Deutsches Register Klinischer Studien). URL of trial registry record: https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00017051 .

Indexed as

Athletic TapeChronic PainLow Back PainMusculoskeletal ManipulationsHumansQuality of LifeRetrospective StudiesChronic low back painLeg length differenceManual therapyRCTTaping

Identifiers

PMID33947367
PMCPMC8094483
OpenAlexW3158430656

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.