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Background Low back pain (LBP) is rising globally due to increase in population and ageing. In adults below 45 years of age, work-related injury leads to nonspecific pain resulting in disability. Exercise therapy has proven to be effective in reducing pain and associated disability in these patients. McKenzie exercises focus on repeated end-range movement and posture correction, thereby reducing pain and disability. This study aims to compare the effectiveness of McKenzie exercise with other techniques in reducing pain and disability in nonspecific chronic LBP (NSCLBP). Objectives To compare the effect of alternate treatment approaches and McKenzie exercises in nonspecific chronic low back pain. Methods Studies that satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the review were found by searching databases like Google Scholar, Pub Med and Cochrane CENTRAL. This study comprised randomized controlled trials that compared McKenzie treatment with other therapeutic approaches for treating NSCLBP. Two independent reviewers extracted the data and evaluated the trials' quality. Forest plots were used to display the results. Results Eleven full-text articles were included in this study for review in order to conduct a meta-analysis and qualitative analysis. The meta-analysis of pain and functional impairment related to back pain comprised ten studies each. When comparing patients undergoing McKenzie treatment to other treatment techniques, there was a slight overall decrease in the intensity of low back pain (SMD: -0.83 95% CI: -1.11, -0.55, I2= 80.8%; p< 0.000). After doing McKenzie exercises, low back patients' functional impairment did not improve in comparison to other therapy methods (SMD: 0.07 95% CI: -0.54, 0.68, I2= 71.5%; p< 0.000). Conclusion McKenzie exercise is equally effective to other manual therapy techniques but slightly effective than passive treatments in decreasing pain & disability in NSCLBP.
Singh et al. (Wed,) studied this question.