LITERATURE REVIEW 
SPINE Volume 38, Number 6, pp E350–E358 
©2013, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 
Motor Control Exercises Reduces Pain and 
Disability in Chronic and Recurrent Low Back Pain 
A Meta-Analysis 
Martin Gustaf Byström , RPT, MSc , * Eva Rasmussen-Barr , PhD , * † and Wilhelmus Johannes Andreas Grooten , PhD* ‡ 
Study Design. Meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials. 
Objective. To determine the short-term, intermediate, and long-term 
effectiveness of MCE, with regard to pain and disability, in 
patients with chronic and recurrent low-back pain. 
Summary of Background Data. Previous meta-analyses have 
shown no difference between the effects of MCE and general 
exercise in the treatment of low back pain. Several high quality 
studies on this topic have been published lately, warranting a new 
meta-analysis. 
Methods. We searched electronic databases up to October 2011 
for randomized controlled trials clearly distinguishing MCE from 
other treatments. We extracted pain and disability outcomes and 
converted them to a 0 to 100 scale. We used the RevMan5 (Nordic 
Cochrane Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark) software to perform 
pooled analyses to determine the weighted mean differences 
(WMDs) between MCE and 5 different control interventions. 
Results. Sixteen studies were included. The pooled results favored 
MCE compared with general exercise with regard to disability 
during all time periods (improvement in WMDs ranged from − 4.65 
to − 4.86), and with regard to pain in the short and intermediate 
term (WMDs were − 7.80 and − 6.06, respectively). Compared with 
spinal manual therapy, MCE was superior with regard to disability 
during all time periods (the WMDs ranged between − 5.27 and 
− 6.12), but not with regard to pain. Furthermore, MCE was superior 
to minimal intervention during all time periods with regard to 
both pain (the WMDs ranged between − 10.18 and − 13.32) and 
disability (the WMDs ranged between − 5.62 and − 9.00). 
Conclusion. In patients with chronic and recurrent low back pain, 
MCE seem to be superior to several other treatments. More studies 
are, however, needed to investigate what subgroups of patients 
experiencing LBP respond best to MCE. 
Key words: exercise therapy , low back pain , motor control , 
multifi dus , rehabilitation , stability exercise , transversus. Spine 
2013 ;38:E350–E358 
Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common pain 
complaints, with a lifetime prevalence of between 60% 
and 80%. 1 Despite this, the etiology of LBP remains 
largely unknown and the majority of cases do not receive a 
specifi c diagnosis, giving rise to the term “nonspecifi c LBP.” 1 , 2 
One proposed mechanism in the development of LBP is that 
spinal instability causes injury to structures with embed-ded 
mechanoreceptors. 3 , 4 Panjabi 3 , 5 hypothesized that spinal 
stability depends on 3 systems: the passive articular system, 
an active muscular system, and a neural control system. 
Bergmark 6 divided the muscular system into a local system, 
which fi ne controls intervertebral motion, and a global sys-tem, 
which generates spinal motion. Muscles that have been 
argued to play a major role in spinal stability are primarily 
the transversus abdominis (TrA) and the multifi dus, but also 
the pelvic fl oor and the diaphragm. 6 – 10 Recent research has 
proposed that the activity of the TrA is associated with pos-tural 
demand in standing. 11 In individuals with LBP, the local 
musculature exhibits disturbed motor control patterns and 
changed physiological properties. 7 , 10 – 17 Motor control exer-cises 
(MCE) have been devised to correct these defi ciencies 
and retrain optimal movement patterns and control of spinal 
motion and are currently being used by physical therapists 
worldwide in the treatment of LBP. Five systematic reviews 
on MCE in LBP have been published, 18 – 22 2 of which carried 
out pooled analyses. 18 , 21 Macedo et al 18 searched the literature 
up to June 2008 and concluded that MCE is superior to mini-mal 
intervention, but not to spinal manual therapy or general 
exercise in subacute, chronic, and recurrent LBP. Since 2008, 
a number of high quality, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) 
have been published, warranting an updated pooled analysis. 
The objective of the present meta-analysis was to investi-gate 
the short-term, intermediate, and long-term effect of MCE 
From the * Department of Neurobiology, Division of Physiotherapy Caring 
Sciences, and Society, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden ; † Institute 
of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden ; and 
‡ Department of Health Sciences, Division of Occupational and Environmental 
Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden . 
Acknowledgment date: August 23, 2012. Revision date: December 10, 2012. 
Acceptance date: December 11, 2012. 
The manuscript submitted does not contain information about medical 
device(s)/drug(s). 
No funds were received in support of this work. 
No relevant fi nancial activities outside the submitted work. 
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Eva Rasmussen-Barr, PhD, 
Karolinska Institute, Division of Physiotherapy, Department of Neurobiology, 
Caring Sciences, and Society, 23 100, S-141 76 Huddinge, Sweden; E-mail: 
Eva.Rasmussen.Barr@ki.se 
DOI: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e31828435fb 
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LITERATURE REVIEW Motor Control Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al 
with regard to pain and disability in patients with chronic and 
recurrent LBP. 
MATERIALS AND METHODS 
Criteria for Inclusion 
We included RCTs reported in English and available online, 
and including participants at least 16 years of age classifi ed 
as having chronic or recurrent LBP. We also included stud-ies 
containing some subacute patients if the average duration 
exceeded 6 months or if more than 80% of the participants 
had chronic LBP. In this study, “chronic” denotes a duration 
of more than 12 weeks 1 and “recurrent LBP” is defi ned as 
pain recurring after a pain-free interval. 23 “Acute” denotes a 
duration of 0 to 3 weeks and “subacute” is used to mean 4 
to 12 weeks. 1 The study design had to include at least one 
intervention arm with MCE, that is, with the intervention 
labeled as MCE, segmental stabilizing exercise, or specifi c sta-bilizing 
exercise. The intervention was also considered MCE 
if it included exercises described as “abdominal hollowing” or 
“abdominal draw-in” or if it was stated that the initial stage 
aimed to isolate isometric contraction of the TrA and/or the 
MF. Only RCTs with a clear contrast between MCE and other 
treatments were included in the study, as recommended by the 
Cochrane Back Review Group. For example; studies investi-gating 
a combination of MCE and spinal manual therapy had 
to include a control group treated with only spinal manual 
therapy. The follow-up period had to be at least 6 weeks, and 
outcome measures had to include pain and/or disability. Finally, 
the outcomes had to be reported on a continuous scale, giving 
either the mean change from baseline and corresponding stan-dard 
deviation (SD) or data that allowed calculation of these 
values, such as quartiles or standard errors. We excluded stud-ies 
whose participants had undergone back surgery during the 
year prior to the intervention start, or experienced rheumatoid 
arthritis, osteoporosis, fractures, malignancies, or any kind of 
systematic diseases or nonmechanical LBP, or were pregnant/ 
experienced postnatal-related LBP. 
Identifi cation and Selection of Studies 
A systematic search for relevant studies was performed up 
to October 2011 in the PubMed, EMBASE, PEDro, and 
CINAHL databases, as recommended by the Cochrane Back 
Review Group. 24 The following search path was used: (low 
back pain) AND (segmental OR stabili* OR multifi dus 
OR transversus OR core OR (motor control). Limits: RTC, 
human trials, written in English. 
Two reviewers examined the titles and selected relevant 
studies. The abstracts of the remaining studies were then 
reviewed and more studies were excluded. Finally, the remain-ing 
studies were investigated in full length and a fi nal selection 
of studies was made. The second reviewer was blinded to the 
authors of the studies when making the selection. 
Methodological Quality Assessment 
The 10-point PEDro scale was used to determine the quality 
of the included studies to identify high-quality ( ≥ 6 points) 
and low-quality ( < 6 points) studies. 25 , 26 All included studies 
had already been rated by raters of the PEDro database. The 
quality assessment was not used to exclude studies. 
Data Extraction and Analysis 
The included studies were sorted into the following categories: 
1. MCE versus general exercise. 
2. MCE versus spinal manual therapy. 
3. MCE versus minimal intervention. 
4. MCE versus multimodal physical therapy. 
5. MCE as part of a multimodal intervention versus the 
other components of that intervention. 
Three follow-up time periods were considered: a short-term: 
6 weeks or more and less than 4 months; intermediate-term: 
4 or more and less than 8 months; and long-term period: 8 
months or more and less than 15 months. If one study reported 
outcomes at multiple time points within the same time period, 
the outcome closest to 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months 
was considered. General exercise constituted any exercise 
other than MCE. Similar categories have been used in previous 
reviews. 18 , 22 “Minimal intervention” is defi ned here as no inter-vention, 
or as advice/education or placebo treatment. 
Pain and disability scores were transformed to a common 0 
to 100 point scale. The RevMan5 (Nordic Cochrane Centre, 
Copenhagen, Denmark) software was used to calculate the 
weighted mean difference (WMD) between the index and the 
control intervention and the 95% confi dence interval (CI). 27 
RevMan5 requires data to be entered as the within-group mean 
change from baseline and the change from baseline SD. For stud-ies 
only reporting the mean and SD at baseline and follow-up, we 
calculated the change from baseline SD using Equation 1. 
SDchange = √SD2 
baseline + SD2 
follow-up − (2 × Coerr × SDbaseline × SDfollow-up) (1) 
In the equation, a conservative value of coerr = 0.5 was 
used; a lower value implies that an analysis based solely on 
the outcome at follow-up is more precise than a change from 
baseline analysis. 28 For studies reporting medians and quar-tiles, 
the SD was calculated using Equation 2. 28 
SD = Quartile range 
1.35 
(2) 
Pooled analyses were carried out using the RevMan5 soft-ware, 
which uses the inverse variance method. 27 , 29 We used 
a random effects model when the data displayed statistical 
heterogeneity; for homogenous data, we used a fi xed effects 
model. 27 , 28 To determine the statistical heterogeneity, Rev- 
Man5 calculates the statistic I, 2 which is an approximate mea-sure 
of the proportion of the variation due to heterogeneity 
rather than sampling error. 29 A value of I 2 50% or more is 
considered substantial heterogeneity. 28 
RESULTS 
The systematic search retrieved 117 studies from PubMed, 
107 from EMBASE, 72 from PEDro, and 21 from 
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LITERATURE REVIEW Motor Control Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al 
CINAHL. After removing duplicative studies, a total of 
184 studies remained. Of these, 117 were excluded on the 
basis of their title, 6 were not written in English, and 2 
were not available online. We excluded another 43 stud-ies 
after reviewing their abstracts or full text. Seventeen of 
these were excluded because they did not report relevant 
outcomes. Nine were excluded because the intervention did 
not constitute MCE. Seven were pilot studies or descrip-tions 
of study designs and not RCTs. The remaining studies 
were excluded for the following reasons: 3 studies did not 
provide a clear contrast, 3 studies included subjects with-out 
LBP, 2 studies included subjects with acute LBP, 1 study 
included subjects who had undergone surgery, and the 
follow-up period of one study was too short. The system-atic 
search, therefore, resulted in a total of 16 included 
studies ( Tables 1 – 5 ). The methodological quality of the 
included studies varied from 4 to 9 points on the PEDro 
scale, with an average of 6.4. Ten studies were of high qual-ity 
and 6 were of low quality. 
Motor Control Exercise Versus General Exercise 
Seven studies compared effects of MCE to effects of general 
exercise. 30 – 36 One of these 30 provided comparisons with 2 dif-ferent 
types of general exercise, sling exercise, and a combi-nation 
of general strengthening and stretching. Consequently, 
8 comparisons were included in this category ( Table 1 ). The 
pooled results favored MCE with regard to pain in the short 
(WMD, − 7.80; CI, − 10.95 to − 4.65) and intermediate term 
(WMD, − 6.06; CI, − 10.94 to − 1.18) and also with regard 
to disability in the short (WMD, − 4.65; CI, − 6.20 to − 3.11), 
TABLE 1. Trials Comparing Motor Control Exercise With General Exercise 
Study PEDro Scale Participants Intervention Outcome/ Follow-up 
Unsgaard-Tondel 
et al 30 
7/10, high 
quality 
N = 109. Male and female, 19–60 
(mean, 40.1) yr. LBP ≥ 3 mo. 
(1) MCE. (2) GE: sling exercise. One 
session/wk for 8 wk. 
Pain (NRS), 8 wk and 
1 yr; disability (ODI), 
8 wk 
Unsgaard-Tondel 
et al 30 
7/10, high 
quality 
N = 109. Male and female 19– 60 
(mean, 40.1) yr. LBP ≥ 3 mo. 
(1) MCE. (2) GE: trunk strengthening 
and stretching. 1 session/wk for 
8 wk. 
Pain (NRS), 8 wk and 
1 yr; disability (ODI), 
8 wk 
Franca et al 31 7/10, high 
quality 
N = 30. Male and female, mean, 
41.9 yr. LBP > 3 mo. 
(1) MCE. (2) GE: trunk strengthening. 
12 sessions during 6 wk. Home 
exercise was discouraged. 
Pain (VAS, MPQ); 
disability (ODI), 6 wk 
Rasmussen- Barr 
et al 32 
7/10, high 
quality 
N = 71. Male and female, 18–60 
(mean, 38.5) yr. Recurrent LBP 
( > 8 wk), average duration, 10 yr. 
(1) MCE. 1 session with PT every 
week for 8 wk, daily home 
training. (2) Instruction to take 
30-min walks daily, general home 
exercises. 8 wk, meeting the PT 2 
times (wk 1 and 8). 
Disability (ODI); pain 
(VAS), 8 wk; 6, 12, 
and 36 mo 
Akbari et al 33 5/10 low 
quality 
N = 49. 18–80 (mean, 39.8) yr. 
LBP ≥ 3 mo. Suitable for MCE 
(unable to contract TrA/MF 
correctly). 
(1) MCE. 2. GE: trunk strengthening. 
Both groups performed 16 sessions 
during 8 wk. 
Pain (VAS); disability 
(BPS), 8 wk 
Critchley et al 34 7/10, high 
quality 
N = 212. Male and female, ≥ 18 
(mean, 44) yr. LBP ≥ 12 wk. 
(1) MCE, individual PT followed by 
group exercises. Max 8 sessions, 
90 min/session. (2) GE (strength 
and cardiovascular), stretching, 
education. Max 8 sessions, 90 
min/session. 
Disability (RMDQ); 
pain (0–100), 6, 12, 
and 18 mo 
Ferreira et al 35 8/10, high 
quality 
N = 240. Male and female, 18–80 
(mean, 53.6) yr. LBP ≥ 3 mo. 
(1) MCE. (2) GE (strength and 
cardiovascular), stretching. Up to 
12 sessions during 8 wk. Daily 
home exercise encouraged. 
Pain (VAS); disability 
(RMDQ), 8 wk; 6, 
and 12 mo 
Miller et al 36 5/10, low 
quality 
N = 30. Male and female, 19–87 
(mean 49) yr. LBP ≥ 7 wk, mean 
duration 26 mo. 
(1) MCE. (2) McKenzie (with SMT 
for some patients) during 6 wk, 
schedule determined by PT 
and patient. Home exercises 
prescribed. 
Pain (SF-MPQ); 
disability (FSQ), 6 wk 
BPS indicates back performance scale; FSQ, functional status questionnaire; GE, general exercise; LBP, low back pain; MCE, motor control exercise; mODI, 
modifi ed Oswestry disability index; MPQ, McGill pain questionnaire; NRS, numerical rating scale; ODI, Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire; PT, 
physiotherapist or physiotherapy; RMDQ, Roland-Morris disability questionnaire; SF-MPQ, short-form McGill pain questionnaire; SMT, spinal manual therapy; 
VAS, visual analogue scale; TrA, transversus abdominis; MF, multifi dus. 
Min denotes minimum; max, maximum. 
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LITERATURE REVIEW Motor Control Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al 
TABLE 2. Trials Comparing Motor Control Exercise With Spinal Manual Therapy 
Study PEDro Scale Participants Intervention Outcome/Follow-up 
Ferreira et al 35 8/10, high quality N = 240. Male and female, 18–80 
(mean, 53.6) yr. LBP ≥ 3 mo. 
(1) MCE. (2) SMT. Up to 
12 sessions during 8 wk. 
Pain (VAS); disability 
(RMDQ), 8 wk; 6 and 
12 mo 
Goldby et al 37 4/10, low quality N = 346. Male and female, 18–65 
(mean, 42.0) yr. LBP ≥ 12 wk. 
(1) MCE. 10 sessions. (2) 
SMT. Max 10 sessions. 
Pain (NRS); disability 
(mODI), 3, 6, 12, and 
24 mo 
5/10, low quality N = 47. Male and female, 18–60 
(mean, 38) yr. Subacute and chronic 
LBP, 89.4% of participants had a 
duration ≥ 12 wk. 
(1) MCE. 6 sessions during 
6 wk, daily home 
training. (2) SMT. 6 
sessions during 6 wk. 
Pain (VAS); disability 
(ODI), 3 and 12 mo 
LBP indicates low back pain; max, maximum; MCE, motor control exercise; Min, minimum; mODI, modifi ed Oswestry disability index; NRS, numerical rating 
scale; ODI, Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire; RMDQ, Roland-Morris disability questionnaire; SMT, spinal manual therapy; VAS, visual analogue 
scale. 
Motor Control Exercise Versus Multimodal 
Physical Therapy 
Four studies compared MCE with multimodal physical 
therapy ( Table 4 ), but it was only possible to carry out a 
pooled analysis in the intermediate term because the lack 
of reported short- and long-term outcomes. 34 , 41 – 43 The 
results favored MCE with regard to pain (WMD, − 14.20; 
CI, − 21.23 to − 7.16) and disability (WMD, − 12.98; CI, 
− 19.49 to − 6.47) ( Figure 4 ). A single study 43 favored MCE 
in the short term with regard to pain and disability, whereas 
no signifi cant long term difference was reported in another 
single study. 34 
Motor Control Exercise as Part of a Multimodal 
Intervention Versus the Other Components of 
that Intervention 
A pooled analysis could not be carried out in this category, 
because the 2 included studies reported outcomes at differ-ent 
time points ( Table 5 ). 44 , 45 A single study 44 favored general 
trunk strengthening compared with a combination of MCE 
and general trunk strengthening with regard to disability in 
the short term ( Figure 5 ). No other signifi cant differences 
were reported. 
Rasmussen-Barr 
et al 38 
intermediate (WMD, − 4.86; CI, − 8.59 to − 1.13), and long 
term (WMD, − 4.72; CI, − 8.81 to − 0.63) ( Figure 1 ). 
Motor Control Exercise Versus Spinal Manual Therapy 
In this category, the pooled analysis included 3 studies 
( Table 2 ). 35 , 37 , 38 Compared with spinal manual therapy, MCE 
was superior with regard to disability in the short (WMD, 
− 6.12; CI, − 11.94 to − 0.30), intermediate (WMD, − 5.27; 
CI, − 9.52 to − 1.01), and long term (WMD, − 5.76; CI, 
− 9.21 to − 2.32). No signifi cant differences were, however, 
found with regard to pain ( Figure 2 ). 
Motor Control Exercise Versus Minimal Intervention 
Two studies compared MCE with minimal intervention con-cerning 
pain. 37 , 39 The pooled results favored MCE with regard 
to the short (WMD, − 12.48; CI, − 19.04 to − 5.93), inter-mediate 
(WMD, − 10.18; CI, − 16.64 to − 3.72), and long 
term (WMD, − 13.32; CI, − 19.75 to − 6.90). Three studies 
compared MCE with minimal intervention concerning dis-ability 
( Table 3 ). 37 , 39 , 40 The pooled results favored MCE in 
the short (WMD, − 9.00; CI, − 15.28 to − 2.73), intermedi-ate 
(WMD, − 5.62; CI, − 10.46 to − 0.77), and long term 
(WMD, − 6.64; CI, − 11.72 to − 1.57) ( Figure 3 ). 
TABLE 3. Trials Comparing Motor Control Exercise With Minimal Intervention 
Study PEDro Scale Participants Intervention Outcome/Follow-up 
Costa et al 39 9/10, high quality N = 154. Male and female, 
18–80 (mean, 53.7) yr. 
LBP ≥ 3 mo. 
(1) MCE. (2) Placebo short-wave 
therapy and ultrasound. 12 
sessions during 8 wk. 
Pain (NRS); disability 
(RMDQ), 2, 6, and 
12 mo 
Goldby et al 37 4/10, low quality N = 346. Male and female, 
18–65 (mean, 42.0) yr. 
LBP ≥ 12 wk. 
(1) MCE. 10 sessions. (2) 
Education. 1 session. 
Pain (NRS); disability 
(mODI), 3, 6, 12, and 
24 mo 
Shaughnessy and 
Caulfi eld 40 
5/10, low quality N = 41. Male and female, 
20–60 yr. LBP ≥ 12 wk. 
(1) MCE. 10 sessions during 
10 wk. (2) Control. No 
intervention. 
Disability (ODI, RMDQ), 
10 wk 
LBP indicates low back pain; MCE, motor control exercise; mODI, modifi ed Oswestry disability index; NRS, numerical rating scale; ODI, Oswestry low back 
pain disability questionnaire; RMDQ, Roland-Morris disability questionnaire. 
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LITERATURE REVIEW Motor Control Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al 
TABLE 4. Trials Comparing Motor Control Exercise With Multimodal Physical Therapy 
Study PEDro Scale Participants Intervention Outcome/Follow-up 
Kumar et al 41 5/10, low quality N = 141. Male and female, 
(1) MCE. (2) Ultrasound, 
electrotherapy, lumbar 
strengthening. 20 sessions, then 
follow-up for 180 d. 
Pain (VAS), 180 d 
(1) MCE. (2) Ultrasound, 
electrotherapy, lumbar 
strengthening. 20 sessions, then 
follow-up for 180 d. 
Pain (VAS), 180 d 
Critchley et al 34 7/10, high quality N = 212. Male and female, ≥ 18 
(1) MCE, individual PT followed by 
group exercises. Max 8 sessions, 
90 min/session. (2) Usual 
outpatient PT, passive PT & GE. 
Max 12 sessions, 30 min/session. 
Disability (RMDQ); 
pain (0–100), 6, 12, 
and 18 mo 
16–49 (mean, 31) yr. 
Recurrent LBP, current episode 
> 3 mo. Spondylolysis/ 
spondylolisthesis. 
(1) MCE. 10-week treatment, 
directed by PT on a weekly basis. 
Daily home exercise. (2) Control. 
10-week treatment directed by 
the patient’s medical practitioner. 
Passive PT and GE. 
Pain (SF-MPQ); 
disability (ODI), 3, 6, 
and 30 mo 
GE indicates general exercise; LBP, low back pain; MCE, motor control exercise; ODI, Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire; PT, physiotherapist or 
physiotherapy; RMDQ, Roland-Morris disability questionnaire; SF-MPQ, short-form McGill pain questionnaire; VAS, visual analogue scale. 
present analysis and that by Macedo et al 18 may be due to 
our inclusion of 4 recent studies. 30 – 33 The difference in results 
could however also be due to the application of stricter inclu-sion 
criteria in the current study, as recommended by the 
Cochrane Back Review Group. 24 Two studies 47 , 48 included by 
Macedo et al 18 were excluded from the present meta-analysis 
because they did not provide a clear contrast for MCE. 
The results presented in this meta-analysis suggest that 
MCE is superior to spinal manual therapy with regard to dis-ability 
during all time periods, but not with regard to pain. In 
contrast, Macedo et al 18 found only a signifi cant difference in 
the intermediate term with regard to both disability and pain. 
These differences may be due to the fact that Macedo et al 18 
included a study, 34 which in the present study was included 
in the category “MCE versus multimodal physical therapy.” 
The present study reveals that MCE is more effective than 
minimal intervention in reducing both pain and disability 
20–40 (mean, 35.08) yr. 
Subacute and chronic LPB, 
mean duration 33.65 mo. 
Kumar et al 42 7/10, high quality N = 102. Male, 20–40 (mean, 
34.06) yr. Subacute and 
chronic LPB, mean duration 
25.37 mo. 
(mean, 44) yr. LPB ≥ 12 wk. 
O’Sullivan et al 43 7/10, high quality N = 44. Male and female, 
DISCUSSION 
The objective of the present meta-analysis was to establish the 
effect of MCE with regard to pain and disability in patients 
with chronic and recurrent LBP. The pooled results favored 
MCE compared with general exercise with regard to pain in 
the short and intermediate term and with regard to disabil-ity 
during all time periods. MCE was also superior to spinal 
manual therapy with regard to disability during all time 
periods but not with regard to pain. Compared with minimal 
intervention, MCE was superior with regard to both pain and 
disability during all time periods. 
In contrast to these results, a previous, pooled analysis by 
Macedo et al 18 reports no signifi cant difference between MCE 
and general exercise, with the exception of disability in the 
short term. The results of the present study contrast with the 
opinion that any effects of MCE are merely due to the gen-eral 
effects of physical exercise. 46 The differences between the 
TABLE 5. Trials Comparing Motor Control Exercise as Part of Multimodal Treatment With the Other 
Components of That Treatment 
Study PEDroScale Participants Intervention Outcome/Follow-up 
Koumantakis et al 44 7/10, high quality N = 55. Male and female. Mean 
age, 37.3 yr. Recurrent LBP, 
current episode ≥ 6 wk. 
(1) MCE + GE. (2) GE: trunk 
strengthening. Twice per week 
for 8 wk. 
Pain (SF-MPQ, VAS); 
disability (RMDQ), 
3 mo 
Cairns et al 45 7/10, high quality N = 97. Male and female, 18–60 
(mean, 38.7) yr. Recurrent LBP, 
average duration of current 
episode 8.7 mo. 
(1) MCE. (2) Conventional PT. 
Both groups received passive 
PT and GE. Maximum of 12 
sessions during 12 wk. 
Disability (RMDQ); 
pain (SF-MPQ, NRS), 
12 mo 
GE indicates general exercise; LBP, low back pain; MCE, motor control exercise; NRS, numerical rating scale; ODI, Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire; 
PT, physiotherapist or physiotherapy; RMDQ, Roland-Morris disability questionnaire; SF-MPQ, short-form McGill pain questionnaire; VAS, visual analogue scale. 
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LITERATURE REVIEW Motor Control Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al 
Figure 2. Motor control exercise versus spinal manual therapy. The for-est 
plot shows mean difference (gray squares) and 95% confi dence 
interval (95% CI) of individual trials, and pooled, weighted mean dif-ference 
and 95% CI (black diamond) of all trials. All outcomes have 
been transformed to a common 0 to 100 scale. 
studies was 6.4, that is, they were generally of high quality. It 
therefore seems unlikely that the validity of the results would 
be affected by poor study quality. The included studies exhib-ited 
heterogeneity in the population, as well as in LBP diag-nosis 
and the MCE protocols with regard to parameters such 
as the length of intervention, methods used for feedback, etc . 
This makes it harder to state how the results relate to the indi-vidual 
patient and any specifi c MCE protocol. 
One methodological shortcoming of the current study was 
that several studies did not report the change from baseline 
SD, forcing us to impute this measure. In future studies, out-comes 
should preferably be reported as the mean change from 
baseline and the change from baseline SD. The conservative 
approach taken in this study, in the choice of the correlation 
coeffi cient, may have resulted in an underestimation of the 
statistical signifi cance of the treatment effect. Despite this 
Figure 1. Motor control exercise (MCE) versus general exercise. The 
forest plot shows mean difference (gray squares) and 95% confi dence 
interval (95% CI) of individual trials, and pooled, weighted mean 
difference and 95% CI (black diamond) of all trials. All outcomes have 
been transformed to a common 0–100 scale. (a) MCE versus sling 
exercise. (b) MCE versus trunk strengthening and stretching. 
during the short, medium, and long term. This result con-curs 
with the strong evidence for the effectiveness of exercise 
therapy in the treatment of chronic LBP. 49 Due to a shortage 
of RCTs, no conclusion could be drawn on the effectiveness 
of MCE compared with multimodal physical therapy. There 
was also a lack of RCTs studying MCE as part of a multi-modal 
treatment. 
The quality of the included studies ranged from 4 to 9 
on the PEDro scale. The average score of the 16 included 
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LITERATURE REVIEW Motor Control Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al 
Figure 4. Motor control exercise versus multimodal physical therapy. 
The forest plot shows mean difference (gray squares) and 95% con-fi 
dence interval (95% CI) of individual trials, and pooled, weighted 
mean difference and 95% CI (black diamond) of all trials. All outcomes 
have been transformed to a common 0 to 100 scale. 
should focus on associations between physical changes of the 
deep abdominals and improvement in pain and disability. So 
far, only one study has reported a moderate correlation. 54 
Figure 3. Motor control exercise versus minimal intervention. The for-est 
plot shows mean difference between interventions (gray squares) 
and 95% confi dence interval (95% CI) of individual trials, and pooled, 
weighted mean difference and 95% CI (black diamond) of all trials. All 
outcomes have been transformed to a common 0 to 100 scale. 
approach, signifi cant differences were found. These statisti-cal 
differences do, however, not automatically imply clinical 
signifi cance. 
Studies without a clear contrast for MCE were excluded. 
Consequently, the pooled treatment effects presented are sug-gested 
to represent the effect of MCE only, uncontaminated 
by the effects of other treatments. To provide a clear con-trast, 
future studies should ideally keep to a strict compari-son 
between an MCE group and a control group receiving a 
single treatment. The effect of an exercise intervention, in this 
case MCE, may of course always be affected by other factors, 
such as the patient’s beliefs and expectation, the training of 
the physiotherapist, and placebo effects. 50 , 51 Compared with 
other exercises, MCE are more body specifi c and performed 
with greater awareness and control. MCE may, therefore, 
have a greater effect on self-effi cacy, a psychosocial factor 
proposed to be important in the rehabilitation of musculo-skeletal 
disorders. 32 , 52 , 53 To establish whether MCE are solely 
responsible for changes in pain and disability, future studies 
Figure 5. Motor control exercise as part of multimodal treatment versus 
the other components of that treatment. The forest plot shows mean 
difference (gray squares) and 95% confi dence interval of individual tri-als. 
All outcomes have been transformed to a common 0 to 100 scale. 
E356 www.spinejournal.com March 2013 
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LITERATURE REVIEW Motor Control Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al 
One area of high priority in future research is the develop-ment 
of clinical methods to assess defi cits in motor control. 
Such methods would allow subclassifi cation of patients and 
the identifi cation of those in need of MCE. This was recently 
suggested by Ferreira et al , 54 who report that treatment effects 
of MCE are greater in those with poorer ability to activate 
TrA, implying one subgroup of patients experiencing LBP. 
It has been debated whether MCE should focus on isolated 
contraction of local musculature or if exercises should aim 
at engaging all abdominal and back extensor musculature to 
ensure spinal stability and robustness. 55 , 56 Recent research sug-gests 
that there is an increased activation of the deep abdomi-nals 
in functional and loaded postures. 11 , 57 – 62 It is to date not 
known if the effect of MCE on pain and physical impairment 
in LBP is due to the isolated activation of the local muscula-ture 
or subsequent stages of the intervention involving loaded 
postures engaging all trunk muscles. Isolated contraction of 
the local musculature does however seem to be necessary to 
restore disturbed activation patterns of the local muscula-ture 
in the LBP population. 63 , 64 Further research is needed to 
explore the underlying mechanisms to clarify the impact of 
these exercises on pain and functional limitations. 
In conclusion, the results of this pooled analysis suggest 
that in patients with chronic or recurring LBP, MCE is supe-rior 
to general exercise, manual therapy, and minimal inter-vention 
with regard to disability and pain. More studies are, 
however, needed to investigate what subgroups of patients 
experiencing LBP respond best to MCE. 
➢ Key Points 
‰ This meta-analysis includes randomized control 
studies of motor-control exercises until 2011. 
‰ MCE is superior to general exercise in the treatment 
of chronic and recurrent low back pain with regard to 
pain and disability. 
‰ MCE is superior to spinal manual therapy with regard 
to disability, but not with regard to pain. 
‰ MCE is superior to minimal intervention with regard 
to pain and disability. 
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Exercícios controle motor e lombalgia

  • 1.
    LITERATURE REVIEW SPINEVolume 38, Number 6, pp E350–E358 ©2013, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Motor Control Exercises Reduces Pain and Disability in Chronic and Recurrent Low Back Pain A Meta-Analysis Martin Gustaf Byström , RPT, MSc , * Eva Rasmussen-Barr , PhD , * † and Wilhelmus Johannes Andreas Grooten , PhD* ‡ Study Design. Meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials. Objective. To determine the short-term, intermediate, and long-term effectiveness of MCE, with regard to pain and disability, in patients with chronic and recurrent low-back pain. Summary of Background Data. Previous meta-analyses have shown no difference between the effects of MCE and general exercise in the treatment of low back pain. Several high quality studies on this topic have been published lately, warranting a new meta-analysis. Methods. We searched electronic databases up to October 2011 for randomized controlled trials clearly distinguishing MCE from other treatments. We extracted pain and disability outcomes and converted them to a 0 to 100 scale. We used the RevMan5 (Nordic Cochrane Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark) software to perform pooled analyses to determine the weighted mean differences (WMDs) between MCE and 5 different control interventions. Results. Sixteen studies were included. The pooled results favored MCE compared with general exercise with regard to disability during all time periods (improvement in WMDs ranged from − 4.65 to − 4.86), and with regard to pain in the short and intermediate term (WMDs were − 7.80 and − 6.06, respectively). Compared with spinal manual therapy, MCE was superior with regard to disability during all time periods (the WMDs ranged between − 5.27 and − 6.12), but not with regard to pain. Furthermore, MCE was superior to minimal intervention during all time periods with regard to both pain (the WMDs ranged between − 10.18 and − 13.32) and disability (the WMDs ranged between − 5.62 and − 9.00). Conclusion. In patients with chronic and recurrent low back pain, MCE seem to be superior to several other treatments. More studies are, however, needed to investigate what subgroups of patients experiencing LBP respond best to MCE. Key words: exercise therapy , low back pain , motor control , multifi dus , rehabilitation , stability exercise , transversus. Spine 2013 ;38:E350–E358 Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common pain complaints, with a lifetime prevalence of between 60% and 80%. 1 Despite this, the etiology of LBP remains largely unknown and the majority of cases do not receive a specifi c diagnosis, giving rise to the term “nonspecifi c LBP.” 1 , 2 One proposed mechanism in the development of LBP is that spinal instability causes injury to structures with embed-ded mechanoreceptors. 3 , 4 Panjabi 3 , 5 hypothesized that spinal stability depends on 3 systems: the passive articular system, an active muscular system, and a neural control system. Bergmark 6 divided the muscular system into a local system, which fi ne controls intervertebral motion, and a global sys-tem, which generates spinal motion. Muscles that have been argued to play a major role in spinal stability are primarily the transversus abdominis (TrA) and the multifi dus, but also the pelvic fl oor and the diaphragm. 6 – 10 Recent research has proposed that the activity of the TrA is associated with pos-tural demand in standing. 11 In individuals with LBP, the local musculature exhibits disturbed motor control patterns and changed physiological properties. 7 , 10 – 17 Motor control exer-cises (MCE) have been devised to correct these defi ciencies and retrain optimal movement patterns and control of spinal motion and are currently being used by physical therapists worldwide in the treatment of LBP. Five systematic reviews on MCE in LBP have been published, 18 – 22 2 of which carried out pooled analyses. 18 , 21 Macedo et al 18 searched the literature up to June 2008 and concluded that MCE is superior to mini-mal intervention, but not to spinal manual therapy or general exercise in subacute, chronic, and recurrent LBP. Since 2008, a number of high quality, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been published, warranting an updated pooled analysis. The objective of the present meta-analysis was to investi-gate the short-term, intermediate, and long-term effect of MCE From the * Department of Neurobiology, Division of Physiotherapy Caring Sciences, and Society, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden ; † Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden ; and ‡ Department of Health Sciences, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden . Acknowledgment date: August 23, 2012. Revision date: December 10, 2012. Acceptance date: December 11, 2012. The manuscript submitted does not contain information about medical device(s)/drug(s). No funds were received in support of this work. No relevant fi nancial activities outside the submitted work. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Eva Rasmussen-Barr, PhD, Karolinska Institute, Division of Physiotherapy, Department of Neurobiology, Caring Sciences, and Society, 23 100, S-141 76 Huddinge, Sweden; E-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e31828435fb E350 www.spinejournal.com March 2013 Copyright © 2013 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
  • 2.
    LITERATURE REVIEW MotorControl Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al with regard to pain and disability in patients with chronic and recurrent LBP. MATERIALS AND METHODS Criteria for Inclusion We included RCTs reported in English and available online, and including participants at least 16 years of age classifi ed as having chronic or recurrent LBP. We also included stud-ies containing some subacute patients if the average duration exceeded 6 months or if more than 80% of the participants had chronic LBP. In this study, “chronic” denotes a duration of more than 12 weeks 1 and “recurrent LBP” is defi ned as pain recurring after a pain-free interval. 23 “Acute” denotes a duration of 0 to 3 weeks and “subacute” is used to mean 4 to 12 weeks. 1 The study design had to include at least one intervention arm with MCE, that is, with the intervention labeled as MCE, segmental stabilizing exercise, or specifi c sta-bilizing exercise. The intervention was also considered MCE if it included exercises described as “abdominal hollowing” or “abdominal draw-in” or if it was stated that the initial stage aimed to isolate isometric contraction of the TrA and/or the MF. Only RCTs with a clear contrast between MCE and other treatments were included in the study, as recommended by the Cochrane Back Review Group. For example; studies investi-gating a combination of MCE and spinal manual therapy had to include a control group treated with only spinal manual therapy. The follow-up period had to be at least 6 weeks, and outcome measures had to include pain and/or disability. Finally, the outcomes had to be reported on a continuous scale, giving either the mean change from baseline and corresponding stan-dard deviation (SD) or data that allowed calculation of these values, such as quartiles or standard errors. We excluded stud-ies whose participants had undergone back surgery during the year prior to the intervention start, or experienced rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, fractures, malignancies, or any kind of systematic diseases or nonmechanical LBP, or were pregnant/ experienced postnatal-related LBP. Identifi cation and Selection of Studies A systematic search for relevant studies was performed up to October 2011 in the PubMed, EMBASE, PEDro, and CINAHL databases, as recommended by the Cochrane Back Review Group. 24 The following search path was used: (low back pain) AND (segmental OR stabili* OR multifi dus OR transversus OR core OR (motor control). Limits: RTC, human trials, written in English. Two reviewers examined the titles and selected relevant studies. The abstracts of the remaining studies were then reviewed and more studies were excluded. Finally, the remain-ing studies were investigated in full length and a fi nal selection of studies was made. The second reviewer was blinded to the authors of the studies when making the selection. Methodological Quality Assessment The 10-point PEDro scale was used to determine the quality of the included studies to identify high-quality ( ≥ 6 points) and low-quality ( < 6 points) studies. 25 , 26 All included studies had already been rated by raters of the PEDro database. The quality assessment was not used to exclude studies. Data Extraction and Analysis The included studies were sorted into the following categories: 1. MCE versus general exercise. 2. MCE versus spinal manual therapy. 3. MCE versus minimal intervention. 4. MCE versus multimodal physical therapy. 5. MCE as part of a multimodal intervention versus the other components of that intervention. Three follow-up time periods were considered: a short-term: 6 weeks or more and less than 4 months; intermediate-term: 4 or more and less than 8 months; and long-term period: 8 months or more and less than 15 months. If one study reported outcomes at multiple time points within the same time period, the outcome closest to 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months was considered. General exercise constituted any exercise other than MCE. Similar categories have been used in previous reviews. 18 , 22 “Minimal intervention” is defi ned here as no inter-vention, or as advice/education or placebo treatment. Pain and disability scores were transformed to a common 0 to 100 point scale. The RevMan5 (Nordic Cochrane Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark) software was used to calculate the weighted mean difference (WMD) between the index and the control intervention and the 95% confi dence interval (CI). 27 RevMan5 requires data to be entered as the within-group mean change from baseline and the change from baseline SD. For stud-ies only reporting the mean and SD at baseline and follow-up, we calculated the change from baseline SD using Equation 1. SDchange = √SD2 baseline + SD2 follow-up − (2 × Coerr × SDbaseline × SDfollow-up) (1) In the equation, a conservative value of coerr = 0.5 was used; a lower value implies that an analysis based solely on the outcome at follow-up is more precise than a change from baseline analysis. 28 For studies reporting medians and quar-tiles, the SD was calculated using Equation 2. 28 SD = Quartile range 1.35 (2) Pooled analyses were carried out using the RevMan5 soft-ware, which uses the inverse variance method. 27 , 29 We used a random effects model when the data displayed statistical heterogeneity; for homogenous data, we used a fi xed effects model. 27 , 28 To determine the statistical heterogeneity, Rev- Man5 calculates the statistic I, 2 which is an approximate mea-sure of the proportion of the variation due to heterogeneity rather than sampling error. 29 A value of I 2 50% or more is considered substantial heterogeneity. 28 RESULTS The systematic search retrieved 117 studies from PubMed, 107 from EMBASE, 72 from PEDro, and 21 from Spine www.spinejournal.com E351 Copyright © 2013 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
  • 3.
    LITERATURE REVIEW MotorControl Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al CINAHL. After removing duplicative studies, a total of 184 studies remained. Of these, 117 were excluded on the basis of their title, 6 were not written in English, and 2 were not available online. We excluded another 43 stud-ies after reviewing their abstracts or full text. Seventeen of these were excluded because they did not report relevant outcomes. Nine were excluded because the intervention did not constitute MCE. Seven were pilot studies or descrip-tions of study designs and not RCTs. The remaining studies were excluded for the following reasons: 3 studies did not provide a clear contrast, 3 studies included subjects with-out LBP, 2 studies included subjects with acute LBP, 1 study included subjects who had undergone surgery, and the follow-up period of one study was too short. The system-atic search, therefore, resulted in a total of 16 included studies ( Tables 1 – 5 ). The methodological quality of the included studies varied from 4 to 9 points on the PEDro scale, with an average of 6.4. Ten studies were of high qual-ity and 6 were of low quality. Motor Control Exercise Versus General Exercise Seven studies compared effects of MCE to effects of general exercise. 30 – 36 One of these 30 provided comparisons with 2 dif-ferent types of general exercise, sling exercise, and a combi-nation of general strengthening and stretching. Consequently, 8 comparisons were included in this category ( Table 1 ). The pooled results favored MCE with regard to pain in the short (WMD, − 7.80; CI, − 10.95 to − 4.65) and intermediate term (WMD, − 6.06; CI, − 10.94 to − 1.18) and also with regard to disability in the short (WMD, − 4.65; CI, − 6.20 to − 3.11), TABLE 1. Trials Comparing Motor Control Exercise With General Exercise Study PEDro Scale Participants Intervention Outcome/ Follow-up Unsgaard-Tondel et al 30 7/10, high quality N = 109. Male and female, 19–60 (mean, 40.1) yr. LBP ≥ 3 mo. (1) MCE. (2) GE: sling exercise. One session/wk for 8 wk. Pain (NRS), 8 wk and 1 yr; disability (ODI), 8 wk Unsgaard-Tondel et al 30 7/10, high quality N = 109. Male and female 19– 60 (mean, 40.1) yr. LBP ≥ 3 mo. (1) MCE. (2) GE: trunk strengthening and stretching. 1 session/wk for 8 wk. Pain (NRS), 8 wk and 1 yr; disability (ODI), 8 wk Franca et al 31 7/10, high quality N = 30. Male and female, mean, 41.9 yr. LBP > 3 mo. (1) MCE. (2) GE: trunk strengthening. 12 sessions during 6 wk. Home exercise was discouraged. Pain (VAS, MPQ); disability (ODI), 6 wk Rasmussen- Barr et al 32 7/10, high quality N = 71. Male and female, 18–60 (mean, 38.5) yr. Recurrent LBP ( > 8 wk), average duration, 10 yr. (1) MCE. 1 session with PT every week for 8 wk, daily home training. (2) Instruction to take 30-min walks daily, general home exercises. 8 wk, meeting the PT 2 times (wk 1 and 8). Disability (ODI); pain (VAS), 8 wk; 6, 12, and 36 mo Akbari et al 33 5/10 low quality N = 49. 18–80 (mean, 39.8) yr. LBP ≥ 3 mo. Suitable for MCE (unable to contract TrA/MF correctly). (1) MCE. 2. GE: trunk strengthening. Both groups performed 16 sessions during 8 wk. Pain (VAS); disability (BPS), 8 wk Critchley et al 34 7/10, high quality N = 212. Male and female, ≥ 18 (mean, 44) yr. LBP ≥ 12 wk. (1) MCE, individual PT followed by group exercises. Max 8 sessions, 90 min/session. (2) GE (strength and cardiovascular), stretching, education. Max 8 sessions, 90 min/session. Disability (RMDQ); pain (0–100), 6, 12, and 18 mo Ferreira et al 35 8/10, high quality N = 240. Male and female, 18–80 (mean, 53.6) yr. LBP ≥ 3 mo. (1) MCE. (2) GE (strength and cardiovascular), stretching. Up to 12 sessions during 8 wk. Daily home exercise encouraged. Pain (VAS); disability (RMDQ), 8 wk; 6, and 12 mo Miller et al 36 5/10, low quality N = 30. Male and female, 19–87 (mean 49) yr. LBP ≥ 7 wk, mean duration 26 mo. (1) MCE. (2) McKenzie (with SMT for some patients) during 6 wk, schedule determined by PT and patient. Home exercises prescribed. Pain (SF-MPQ); disability (FSQ), 6 wk BPS indicates back performance scale; FSQ, functional status questionnaire; GE, general exercise; LBP, low back pain; MCE, motor control exercise; mODI, modifi ed Oswestry disability index; MPQ, McGill pain questionnaire; NRS, numerical rating scale; ODI, Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire; PT, physiotherapist or physiotherapy; RMDQ, Roland-Morris disability questionnaire; SF-MPQ, short-form McGill pain questionnaire; SMT, spinal manual therapy; VAS, visual analogue scale; TrA, transversus abdominis; MF, multifi dus. Min denotes minimum; max, maximum. E352 www.spinejournal.com March 2013 Copyright © 2013 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
  • 4.
    LITERATURE REVIEW MotorControl Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al TABLE 2. Trials Comparing Motor Control Exercise With Spinal Manual Therapy Study PEDro Scale Participants Intervention Outcome/Follow-up Ferreira et al 35 8/10, high quality N = 240. Male and female, 18–80 (mean, 53.6) yr. LBP ≥ 3 mo. (1) MCE. (2) SMT. Up to 12 sessions during 8 wk. Pain (VAS); disability (RMDQ), 8 wk; 6 and 12 mo Goldby et al 37 4/10, low quality N = 346. Male and female, 18–65 (mean, 42.0) yr. LBP ≥ 12 wk. (1) MCE. 10 sessions. (2) SMT. Max 10 sessions. Pain (NRS); disability (mODI), 3, 6, 12, and 24 mo 5/10, low quality N = 47. Male and female, 18–60 (mean, 38) yr. Subacute and chronic LBP, 89.4% of participants had a duration ≥ 12 wk. (1) MCE. 6 sessions during 6 wk, daily home training. (2) SMT. 6 sessions during 6 wk. Pain (VAS); disability (ODI), 3 and 12 mo LBP indicates low back pain; max, maximum; MCE, motor control exercise; Min, minimum; mODI, modifi ed Oswestry disability index; NRS, numerical rating scale; ODI, Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire; RMDQ, Roland-Morris disability questionnaire; SMT, spinal manual therapy; VAS, visual analogue scale. Motor Control Exercise Versus Multimodal Physical Therapy Four studies compared MCE with multimodal physical therapy ( Table 4 ), but it was only possible to carry out a pooled analysis in the intermediate term because the lack of reported short- and long-term outcomes. 34 , 41 – 43 The results favored MCE with regard to pain (WMD, − 14.20; CI, − 21.23 to − 7.16) and disability (WMD, − 12.98; CI, − 19.49 to − 6.47) ( Figure 4 ). A single study 43 favored MCE in the short term with regard to pain and disability, whereas no signifi cant long term difference was reported in another single study. 34 Motor Control Exercise as Part of a Multimodal Intervention Versus the Other Components of that Intervention A pooled analysis could not be carried out in this category, because the 2 included studies reported outcomes at differ-ent time points ( Table 5 ). 44 , 45 A single study 44 favored general trunk strengthening compared with a combination of MCE and general trunk strengthening with regard to disability in the short term ( Figure 5 ). No other signifi cant differences were reported. Rasmussen-Barr et al 38 intermediate (WMD, − 4.86; CI, − 8.59 to − 1.13), and long term (WMD, − 4.72; CI, − 8.81 to − 0.63) ( Figure 1 ). Motor Control Exercise Versus Spinal Manual Therapy In this category, the pooled analysis included 3 studies ( Table 2 ). 35 , 37 , 38 Compared with spinal manual therapy, MCE was superior with regard to disability in the short (WMD, − 6.12; CI, − 11.94 to − 0.30), intermediate (WMD, − 5.27; CI, − 9.52 to − 1.01), and long term (WMD, − 5.76; CI, − 9.21 to − 2.32). No signifi cant differences were, however, found with regard to pain ( Figure 2 ). Motor Control Exercise Versus Minimal Intervention Two studies compared MCE with minimal intervention con-cerning pain. 37 , 39 The pooled results favored MCE with regard to the short (WMD, − 12.48; CI, − 19.04 to − 5.93), inter-mediate (WMD, − 10.18; CI, − 16.64 to − 3.72), and long term (WMD, − 13.32; CI, − 19.75 to − 6.90). Three studies compared MCE with minimal intervention concerning dis-ability ( Table 3 ). 37 , 39 , 40 The pooled results favored MCE in the short (WMD, − 9.00; CI, − 15.28 to − 2.73), intermedi-ate (WMD, − 5.62; CI, − 10.46 to − 0.77), and long term (WMD, − 6.64; CI, − 11.72 to − 1.57) ( Figure 3 ). TABLE 3. Trials Comparing Motor Control Exercise With Minimal Intervention Study PEDro Scale Participants Intervention Outcome/Follow-up Costa et al 39 9/10, high quality N = 154. Male and female, 18–80 (mean, 53.7) yr. LBP ≥ 3 mo. (1) MCE. (2) Placebo short-wave therapy and ultrasound. 12 sessions during 8 wk. Pain (NRS); disability (RMDQ), 2, 6, and 12 mo Goldby et al 37 4/10, low quality N = 346. Male and female, 18–65 (mean, 42.0) yr. LBP ≥ 12 wk. (1) MCE. 10 sessions. (2) Education. 1 session. Pain (NRS); disability (mODI), 3, 6, 12, and 24 mo Shaughnessy and Caulfi eld 40 5/10, low quality N = 41. Male and female, 20–60 yr. LBP ≥ 12 wk. (1) MCE. 10 sessions during 10 wk. (2) Control. No intervention. Disability (ODI, RMDQ), 10 wk LBP indicates low back pain; MCE, motor control exercise; mODI, modifi ed Oswestry disability index; NRS, numerical rating scale; ODI, Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire; RMDQ, Roland-Morris disability questionnaire. Spine www.spinejournal.com E353 Copyright © 2013 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
  • 5.
    LITERATURE REVIEW MotorControl Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al TABLE 4. Trials Comparing Motor Control Exercise With Multimodal Physical Therapy Study PEDro Scale Participants Intervention Outcome/Follow-up Kumar et al 41 5/10, low quality N = 141. Male and female, (1) MCE. (2) Ultrasound, electrotherapy, lumbar strengthening. 20 sessions, then follow-up for 180 d. Pain (VAS), 180 d (1) MCE. (2) Ultrasound, electrotherapy, lumbar strengthening. 20 sessions, then follow-up for 180 d. Pain (VAS), 180 d Critchley et al 34 7/10, high quality N = 212. Male and female, ≥ 18 (1) MCE, individual PT followed by group exercises. Max 8 sessions, 90 min/session. (2) Usual outpatient PT, passive PT & GE. Max 12 sessions, 30 min/session. Disability (RMDQ); pain (0–100), 6, 12, and 18 mo 16–49 (mean, 31) yr. Recurrent LBP, current episode > 3 mo. Spondylolysis/ spondylolisthesis. (1) MCE. 10-week treatment, directed by PT on a weekly basis. Daily home exercise. (2) Control. 10-week treatment directed by the patient’s medical practitioner. Passive PT and GE. Pain (SF-MPQ); disability (ODI), 3, 6, and 30 mo GE indicates general exercise; LBP, low back pain; MCE, motor control exercise; ODI, Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire; PT, physiotherapist or physiotherapy; RMDQ, Roland-Morris disability questionnaire; SF-MPQ, short-form McGill pain questionnaire; VAS, visual analogue scale. present analysis and that by Macedo et al 18 may be due to our inclusion of 4 recent studies. 30 – 33 The difference in results could however also be due to the application of stricter inclu-sion criteria in the current study, as recommended by the Cochrane Back Review Group. 24 Two studies 47 , 48 included by Macedo et al 18 were excluded from the present meta-analysis because they did not provide a clear contrast for MCE. The results presented in this meta-analysis suggest that MCE is superior to spinal manual therapy with regard to dis-ability during all time periods, but not with regard to pain. In contrast, Macedo et al 18 found only a signifi cant difference in the intermediate term with regard to both disability and pain. These differences may be due to the fact that Macedo et al 18 included a study, 34 which in the present study was included in the category “MCE versus multimodal physical therapy.” The present study reveals that MCE is more effective than minimal intervention in reducing both pain and disability 20–40 (mean, 35.08) yr. Subacute and chronic LPB, mean duration 33.65 mo. Kumar et al 42 7/10, high quality N = 102. Male, 20–40 (mean, 34.06) yr. Subacute and chronic LPB, mean duration 25.37 mo. (mean, 44) yr. LPB ≥ 12 wk. O’Sullivan et al 43 7/10, high quality N = 44. Male and female, DISCUSSION The objective of the present meta-analysis was to establish the effect of MCE with regard to pain and disability in patients with chronic and recurrent LBP. The pooled results favored MCE compared with general exercise with regard to pain in the short and intermediate term and with regard to disabil-ity during all time periods. MCE was also superior to spinal manual therapy with regard to disability during all time periods but not with regard to pain. Compared with minimal intervention, MCE was superior with regard to both pain and disability during all time periods. In contrast to these results, a previous, pooled analysis by Macedo et al 18 reports no signifi cant difference between MCE and general exercise, with the exception of disability in the short term. The results of the present study contrast with the opinion that any effects of MCE are merely due to the gen-eral effects of physical exercise. 46 The differences between the TABLE 5. Trials Comparing Motor Control Exercise as Part of Multimodal Treatment With the Other Components of That Treatment Study PEDroScale Participants Intervention Outcome/Follow-up Koumantakis et al 44 7/10, high quality N = 55. Male and female. Mean age, 37.3 yr. Recurrent LBP, current episode ≥ 6 wk. (1) MCE + GE. (2) GE: trunk strengthening. Twice per week for 8 wk. Pain (SF-MPQ, VAS); disability (RMDQ), 3 mo Cairns et al 45 7/10, high quality N = 97. Male and female, 18–60 (mean, 38.7) yr. Recurrent LBP, average duration of current episode 8.7 mo. (1) MCE. (2) Conventional PT. Both groups received passive PT and GE. Maximum of 12 sessions during 12 wk. Disability (RMDQ); pain (SF-MPQ, NRS), 12 mo GE indicates general exercise; LBP, low back pain; MCE, motor control exercise; NRS, numerical rating scale; ODI, Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire; PT, physiotherapist or physiotherapy; RMDQ, Roland-Morris disability questionnaire; SF-MPQ, short-form McGill pain questionnaire; VAS, visual analogue scale. E354 www.spinejournal.com March 2013 Copyright © 2013 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
  • 6.
    LITERATURE REVIEW MotorControl Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al Figure 2. Motor control exercise versus spinal manual therapy. The for-est plot shows mean difference (gray squares) and 95% confi dence interval (95% CI) of individual trials, and pooled, weighted mean dif-ference and 95% CI (black diamond) of all trials. All outcomes have been transformed to a common 0 to 100 scale. studies was 6.4, that is, they were generally of high quality. It therefore seems unlikely that the validity of the results would be affected by poor study quality. The included studies exhib-ited heterogeneity in the population, as well as in LBP diag-nosis and the MCE protocols with regard to parameters such as the length of intervention, methods used for feedback, etc . This makes it harder to state how the results relate to the indi-vidual patient and any specifi c MCE protocol. One methodological shortcoming of the current study was that several studies did not report the change from baseline SD, forcing us to impute this measure. In future studies, out-comes should preferably be reported as the mean change from baseline and the change from baseline SD. The conservative approach taken in this study, in the choice of the correlation coeffi cient, may have resulted in an underestimation of the statistical signifi cance of the treatment effect. Despite this Figure 1. Motor control exercise (MCE) versus general exercise. The forest plot shows mean difference (gray squares) and 95% confi dence interval (95% CI) of individual trials, and pooled, weighted mean difference and 95% CI (black diamond) of all trials. All outcomes have been transformed to a common 0–100 scale. (a) MCE versus sling exercise. (b) MCE versus trunk strengthening and stretching. during the short, medium, and long term. This result con-curs with the strong evidence for the effectiveness of exercise therapy in the treatment of chronic LBP. 49 Due to a shortage of RCTs, no conclusion could be drawn on the effectiveness of MCE compared with multimodal physical therapy. There was also a lack of RCTs studying MCE as part of a multi-modal treatment. The quality of the included studies ranged from 4 to 9 on the PEDro scale. The average score of the 16 included Spine www.spinejournal.com E355 Copyright © 2013 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
  • 7.
    LITERATURE REVIEW MotorControl Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al Figure 4. Motor control exercise versus multimodal physical therapy. The forest plot shows mean difference (gray squares) and 95% con-fi dence interval (95% CI) of individual trials, and pooled, weighted mean difference and 95% CI (black diamond) of all trials. All outcomes have been transformed to a common 0 to 100 scale. should focus on associations between physical changes of the deep abdominals and improvement in pain and disability. So far, only one study has reported a moderate correlation. 54 Figure 3. Motor control exercise versus minimal intervention. The for-est plot shows mean difference between interventions (gray squares) and 95% confi dence interval (95% CI) of individual trials, and pooled, weighted mean difference and 95% CI (black diamond) of all trials. All outcomes have been transformed to a common 0 to 100 scale. approach, signifi cant differences were found. These statisti-cal differences do, however, not automatically imply clinical signifi cance. Studies without a clear contrast for MCE were excluded. Consequently, the pooled treatment effects presented are sug-gested to represent the effect of MCE only, uncontaminated by the effects of other treatments. To provide a clear con-trast, future studies should ideally keep to a strict compari-son between an MCE group and a control group receiving a single treatment. The effect of an exercise intervention, in this case MCE, may of course always be affected by other factors, such as the patient’s beliefs and expectation, the training of the physiotherapist, and placebo effects. 50 , 51 Compared with other exercises, MCE are more body specifi c and performed with greater awareness and control. MCE may, therefore, have a greater effect on self-effi cacy, a psychosocial factor proposed to be important in the rehabilitation of musculo-skeletal disorders. 32 , 52 , 53 To establish whether MCE are solely responsible for changes in pain and disability, future studies Figure 5. Motor control exercise as part of multimodal treatment versus the other components of that treatment. The forest plot shows mean difference (gray squares) and 95% confi dence interval of individual tri-als. All outcomes have been transformed to a common 0 to 100 scale. E356 www.spinejournal.com March 2013 Copyright © 2013 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
  • 8.
    LITERATURE REVIEW MotorControl Exercise Reduces Pain and Disability in LBP • Byström et al One area of high priority in future research is the develop-ment of clinical methods to assess defi cits in motor control. Such methods would allow subclassifi cation of patients and the identifi cation of those in need of MCE. This was recently suggested by Ferreira et al , 54 who report that treatment effects of MCE are greater in those with poorer ability to activate TrA, implying one subgroup of patients experiencing LBP. It has been debated whether MCE should focus on isolated contraction of local musculature or if exercises should aim at engaging all abdominal and back extensor musculature to ensure spinal stability and robustness. 55 , 56 Recent research sug-gests that there is an increased activation of the deep abdomi-nals in functional and loaded postures. 11 , 57 – 62 It is to date not known if the effect of MCE on pain and physical impairment in LBP is due to the isolated activation of the local muscula-ture or subsequent stages of the intervention involving loaded postures engaging all trunk muscles. Isolated contraction of the local musculature does however seem to be necessary to restore disturbed activation patterns of the local muscula-ture in the LBP population. 63 , 64 Further research is needed to explore the underlying mechanisms to clarify the impact of these exercises on pain and functional limitations. In conclusion, the results of this pooled analysis suggest that in patients with chronic or recurring LBP, MCE is supe-rior to general exercise, manual therapy, and minimal inter-vention with regard to disability and pain. More studies are, however, needed to investigate what subgroups of patients experiencing LBP respond best to MCE. ➢ Key Points ‰ This meta-analysis includes randomized control studies of motor-control exercises until 2011. ‰ MCE is superior to general exercise in the treatment of chronic and recurrent low back pain with regard to pain and disability. ‰ MCE is superior to spinal manual therapy with regard to disability, but not with regard to pain. ‰ MCE is superior to minimal intervention with regard to pain and disability. References 1. SBU . Ont i ryggen, ont i nacken. Vol. 1 . Stockholm : The Swedish council on Technology Assessment in Health Care ; 2000 . 2. Hancock MJ , Maher CG , Latimer J , et al. 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