TAKING BATH - THE EFFICACY OF BALNEOTHERAPY IN PATIENTS WITH ARTHRITIS - A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Objective. To review English, French, German, and Dutch language studi es of the effectiveness of balneotherapy. Balneotherapy (hydrotherapy of spa therapy) is one of the oldest forms of therapy for patients wit h arthritis. One of the aims of balneotherapy is to relieve pain. Meth ods. We performed a systematic review that included randomized and non randomized studies. Quality scores of the studies were determined usin g a criteria list. Results. Most studies report positive findings, but all studies showed methodological flaws. A quality of life measuremen t was never reported as an outcome measure. None of the randomized cli nical trials included intention-to-treat analysis or comparison of eff ects between groups. Conclusion. Because of the methodological flaws a conclusion about the efficacy of balneotherapy cannot be provided fro m studies we reviewed. We conclude that most flaws found could be avoi dable in future research.