Table 1:

Characteristics of studies included in the systematic review

Study	Intervention	Control	Clinical setting	Patients	Outcome measure
Cluster RCT
Eccles et al.7	Audit and feedback Reminders Both	Guideline dissemination	243 general practices	All patients with any clinical presentation (no. not reported)	Imaging rate per 1 000 patients
French et al.18	Practitioner education*	Guideline dissemination	92 general practices	152 942 (77 716 intervention, 75 226 control) with any clinical presentation	Imaging rate per 1 000 patients
Dey et al.19	Practitioner education* with guidelines on secondary care referral	No intervention	23 general practices	2 187 (1 049 intervention, 1 138 control) with acute low-back pain	Imaging rate (%) among patients with low-back pain
Schectman et al.20	Practitioner education with audit and feedback Patient education Both	No intervention	14 general practices	4 066 (2 020 baseline year, 2 046 study year) with acute low-back pain	Imaging rate (%) among patients with low-back pain
Kerry et al.21	Guideline dissemination with audit and feedback	No intervention	69 general practices	All patients with any clinical presentation (no. not reported)	No. of imaging referrals
Interrupted time series
Matowe et al.17	Guideline dissemination	NA	87 general practices	All patients with any clinical presentation (no. not reported)	No. of imaging referrals
Baker et al.24	Clinical decision support†	NA	Hospital	All patients with any clinical presentation (no. not reported)	No. of imaging referrals

Note: NA = not applicable, RCT = randomized controlled trial.

^*Face-to-face workshop that included guideline dissemination and implementation strategies.

^†Introduction of new imaging referral form, requiring categorization of low-back pain for appropriate referral.