Evidence mapPaperPMID 42159015Full record

Trial reportJournal of rehabilitation medicine2026

Non-inferiority of digitally assisted outpatient rehabilitation in patients with back pain: 12-month follow-up of a randomized controlled trial.

Richard Albers, Stella Lemke, David Fauser, Franziska Schäffer, Sebastian Knapp, Gert Krischak, Matthias Bethge

Abstract readRandomized Controlled TrialEquivalence Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in Journal of rehabilitation medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
field-weighted citation impact
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

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

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

7 authors.

Richard AlbersUniversity of Lübeck, Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Lübeck, Germany. richard.albers@uksh.de.ORCID 0009-0008-9468-2335
Stella LemkeUniversity of Lübeck, Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Lübeck, Germany.
David Fauserniversity of Lübeck, Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Lübeck, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-3845-3094
Franziska SchäfferZAR Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
Sebastian KnappGOREHA GmbH, Berlin, Germany, 4 Nanz Medico GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-3443-5750
Gert KrischakNanz Medico GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart, Germany.
Matthias BethgeUniversity of Lübeck, Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Lübeck, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-6417-7812

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo examine the non-inferiority of digitally assisted, multimodal rehabilitation that utilizes a digital version of a standardized back school (intervention group) compared with a rehabilitation program applying the back school conventionally in person (control group).

designNonblinded, randomized, controlled, non-inferiority trial with 12-month follow-up after the end of rehabilitation. SUBJECTS/PATIENTS: Adults aged 18-65 years with back pain.

methodsThe back school was part of a 3-week rehabilitation program along with other treatments in accordance with the therapy standards. Eight outpatient rehabilitation centers conducted the rehabilitation program. Self-reported pain self-efficacy (10-60 points) was the primary outcome. Non-inferiority was established if the lower limit of the one-sided 95% confidence interval was greater than -4 points for pain self-efficacy.

resultsA total of 157 participants (55.3%) completed the 12-month follow-up. Multiple imputation of missing data allowed for inclusion of 270 participants in the analysis (intervention group: n = 127, control group: n = 143). Our primary adjusted intention- to-treat analysis demonstrated that digitally assisted rehabilitation was non-inferior to conventional rehabilitation at the 12-month follow-up (b = 0.48; 95% CI = -3.09 to ∞).

conclusionThis study supports the hypothesis that digitally assisted rehabilitation is a viable alternative to in-person rehabilitation for patients with back pain.

Indexed as

Back PainAdolescentAdultAgedFemaleFollow-Up StudiesHumansMaleMiddle AgedPain MeasurementSelf EfficacyTreatment OutcomeYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID42159015
PMCPMC13196279

What Socratic holds

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Registered trials

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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.