Kim 2015.

Methods	RCT: 2 arms: treatment, active control; single centre.
Participants	Inclusion criteria: male torture survivors with low back pain attending treatment centre. Exclusion criteria: referred to but not specified. Pain condition: chronic low back pain. Number of participants: 30 at start of treatment, 15 per arm (no dropouts reported). Mean (SD) age in years: intervention: 59.2 (6.6); control: 62.6 (6.6). Sex: 30 men.
Interventions	Experimental group: complex manual therapy 24 × 90‐minute (possibly 2 hour) sessions over 8 weeks. Requests for clarification were unanswered. Control group: self‐exercise for the back, using manual therapy (after education), 90‐minute sessions, 3 × weekly for 8 weeks (36 hours). Therapists: not stated, but presumably physical therapists.
Outcomes	Primary outcomes Pain intensity: Visual Analogue Scale (0‐100). Secondary outcomes PTSD: Korean PDS (17 items rated 0‐3; maximum score 51: higher was worse). Disability: KODI. Version used in study had 9 items rated 0‐5; maximum score should therefore be 45 but in Table 1 values between 50 and 80 were given. Elsewhere, KODI was described as having 10 items. Version used here seems to be missing the question about sexual activity but no justification was given for this. Requests for clarification on the number of items and the scoring were unanswered. Dynamic balance: Balance System Static and Dynamic (time on balance test: seconds) (details of test not given, despite request for clarification). Time points for assessment: baseline, end of treatment. Language of assessment: Korean.
Notes	Means and SDs available for all outcomes, pre‐ and post‐treatment. We approached study authors twice via published email address and twice by post to published addresses to clarify discrepancies in intervention descriptions but had no response. Study period: unknown. Country: Republic of Korea. Language of assessment: Korean (language of participants and therapists). Funding source: not stated. Declarations of interest among the primary researchers: not stated.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Coin toss method used. This was unlikely to result in a 15:15 split. Achievement of parity not explained.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not described.
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not described but difficult to achieve in circumstances.
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not described.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	No withdrawals reported.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All outcomes reported.
Size	High risk	< 50 participants per treatment arm.
Other bias	Low risk	No information on therapist qualifications. No information on therapist allegiance. Language of assessment Korean (language of participants and therapists).