The effects of back schools - a meta-analysis

Back schools are educational programmes for the prevention and rehabilitati on of back pain. A quantitative review (meta-analysis) was performed to syn thesize the existing evidence on their effectiveness, for different outcome criteria and time categories. On the basis of a systematic literature rese arch, IS controlled back school studies with a total of 1682 participants c ould be included in the meta-analysis. Effect sizes that compared back scho ol patients with patients in a control group were calculated for 14 outcome criteria and four time categories. Effectiveness of back schools was shown for the time period within 6 months of intervention. However, effects for the 14 examined criteria revealed large differences: in contrast to the str ong effects on correct back posture and movements and on knowledge of back school contents, the intervention had only small effects on health economic variables (e.g. utilization of the health care system) and no effects on c linical variables (e.g. pain intensity). With regard to the time period fol lowing the 6 months after intervention, the analysed data does not strongly support the effectiveness of back schools. It is concluded that the effect iveness of back school intervention depends on the outcome criterion and ti me of measurement. The results suggest that the concept of back school prog rammes should be improved and systematically re-evaluated. (C) 2001 Lippinc ott Williams & Wilkins.