Overview

The purpose of the guideline is to provide evidence-based recommendations on nonsurgical interventions for chronic primary LBP (CPLBP) in adults, including older people, that can be delivered in primary and community care settings to improve CPLBP-related health and well-being outcomes. For this reason, the guideline does not consider interventions typically delivered in secondary or tertiary care settings (e.g. surgical or other invasive procedures) or workplace interventions.

The target audience is health workers of all disciplines working in the primary and community care settings. In this context, the guideline is intended to be discipline neutral. The guidelines will be of use to clinical staff including medical doctors, nurses, allied health workers including chiropractors, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, pharmacists, psychologists and community health workers, as well as public health programme and system managers.

Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations and acronyms
• Glossary
• Executive summary
• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. Background
  • 1.2. Purpose, scope and target audience
  • 1.3. Integration with other WHO initiatives
• 2. Methods
  • 2.1. Contributors to guideline development
  • 2.2. Declarations of interests by external contributors
  • 2.3. Identifying priority questions and outcomes
  • 2.4. Evidence search, retrieval and syntheses
  • 2.5. Formulating recommendations: Evidence-to-Decision (EtD) approach
  • 2.6. Document preparation and peer review
• 3. Guiding principles: Management of chronic primary low back pain in adults
  • Summary Guiding Principles
• 4. Evidence and recommendations
  • 4.1. Clinical practice considerations relevant across recommendations
  • 4.2. Qualitative evidence synthesis findings relevant across interventions
  • 4.3. Evidence and recommendations for each intervention
• 5. Implementation considerations
  • 5.1. Health care policy and systems considerations
  • 5.2. Workforce considerations
  • 5.3. Service delivery considerations
• 6. Research implications
  • 6.1. Knowledge gaps for specific population groups
  • 6.2. Knowledge gaps for interventions
  • 6.3. Knowledge gaps for critical outcomes and long-term monitoring
• 7. Dissemination
• 8. Monitoring and evaluating the impact of the recommendations
• 9. Updating the guideline
• References
• ANNEX 1. GRADE DEFINITIONS
• ANNEX 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDICINES TRIALS
• ANNEX 3. SUMMARIES OF JUDGEMENTS ACROSS ETD DOMAINS
• Web Annexes
  • Web Annex A. Contributors to the guideline
  • Web Annex B. Protocols for evidence syntheses
  • Web Annex C. Evidence profile for the qualitative evidence synthesis
  • Web Annex D. Evidence-to-decision summaries
  • Web Annex E. List of trials by intervention

Suggested citation:

WHO guideline for non-surgical management of chronic primary low back pain in adults in primary and community care settings. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2023. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

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