The Effect of Hydrokinetic Therapy on Patients with Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a leading cause of disability inter-nationally, particularly low back pain (LBP), which accounts for 60% of occupational diseases. Aquatic therapy has been used to treat various diseases. The aquatic setting has properties that can be used to obtain benefit through exercise. The primary aim of this systematic review was to evaluate physiotherapy qualitatively and quantitatively in a water environment in patients with LBP carrying out a meta-analysis to provide a guidance instrument about the efficacy of this kind of treatment.Methods. This review was conducted in compliance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) protocol. We searched the PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, and PEDro databases for studies to include. Only randomized controlled trials were included. To evaluate the risk of bias, the Jadad and PEDro scales were used.Results. After removing duplicate articles, 19 articles remained. Of these, 10 studies were of high-quality, while the remaining 9 achieved a score indicative of a low qual-itative level.Conclusions. Aquatic therapy is beneficial to use in addition to conventional therapy in patients with LBP, with outcomes visible in the short-term.Study registration. Review was registered in Prospero website http://www.crd.york. ac.uk/PROSPERO with registration number: CRD42021250750.