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. 2023 Oct 16;13:21. doi: 10.1186/s40945-023-00175-4

Table 4.

GRADE assessment: supervised exercise compared to no treatment

Supervised exercise compared to advice for patients after surgery for lumbar disk herniation
Patient or population: patients after surgery for lumbar disk herniation
Setting:
Intervention: supervised exercise
Comparison: no treatment
Outcomes № of participants studies) Follow-up Certainty of the evidence (GRADE) Relative effect (95% CI) Anticipated absolute effects
Risk with nonsupervised exercise Risk difference with supervised exercise

Pain assessed with: Visual Analogue Scale

Scale from: 0 to 10 follow-up: mean 3 months

166

(2 RCTs)

⨁◯◯◯

Very lowa,b

-

MD 0.34 lower

(7.32 lower to

6.63 higher)

Disability follow-up: mean 3 months

166

(2 RCTs)

⨁◯◯◯

Very lowa,b

- -

SMD 0.11 SD

lower

(0.42 lower to

0.19 higher)

Pain assessed with: Visual Analogue Scale

Scale from: 0 to 10 follow-up: mean 6 months

166

(2 RCTs)

⨁◯◯◯

Very lowa,b

-

MD 9.28 higher

(2.78 higher to

15.77 higher)

Disability follow-up: mean 6 months

166

(2 RCTs)

⨁◯◯◯

Very lowa,b,c

- -

SMD 0.06 SD

lower

(0.71 lower to

0.59 higher)

CI confidence interval, MD mean difference, SMD standardised mean difference

GRADE Working Group grades of evidence

High certainty:we are very confident that the true effect lies close to that of the estimate of the effect.

Moderate certainty:we are moderately confident in the effect estimate: the true effect is likely to be close to the estimate of the effect, but there is a possibility that it is substantially different.

Low certainty:our confidence in the effect estimate is limited: the true effect may be substantially different from the estimate of the effect.

Very low certainty:we have very little confidence in the effect estimate: the true effect is likely to be substantially different from the estimate of effect.

*The risk in the intervention group (and its 95% confidence interval) is based on the assumed risk in the comparison group and the relative effect of the intervention (and its 95% CI).

Explanations

aall studies at high risk of bias

bn<<400

cmoderate heterogeneity, discordant point estimates