Reporting of rehabilitation intervention for LBP in RCTs: Is the treatment replicable?

Gianola S et al Phys Ther 2016

An interesting and imperative study especially pertinent to those who ‘study studies’ regularly. The authors note that less than 1/5th of studies on rehabilitation of LBP would be “replicable clinically”.
The percent of studies providing full essential information on interventions was 14% thru 1980 and only 20% thru 2010.
Their conclusion:
“Despite remarkable energy spent producing RCTs in LBP rehab the majority failed to report sufficient information allowing the intervention to be replicated in clinical practice”.

Comment: for years we have echoed this finding that “physical interventions” are often only tacitly defined and modalities either distinct manufacturers (thus “suggesting” like results may require this equipment) or description of vague protocols.
This bias was replete in the development of spinal decompression thru the early 2000’s. Vax D famously though unconvincingly suggested “their research was only applicable to their device”.