Author's response to letter to editor: "Confounding variables in future studies assessing relationship between paraspinal muscles and low back pain"

We thank Orhurhu et al. for their response to our publication. They suggest that future analyses examining the relationship between muscle size and low back pain (LBP) could consider the inclusion of additional confounders, such as psychological factors, patient comorbidities, and treatment modalities, which may influence pain intensity. We agree that understanding the effect of thefactors is important, however we propose that their inter-relationship is complex, particularly in a heterogeneous condition such as nonspecific LBP, and thus further investigation requires specifically designed studies.

Source: The Spine Journal - May 21, 2019 Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Tom A. Ranger, Flavia M. Cicuttini, Tue Secher Jensen, Stephane Heritier, Donna M. Urquhart Tags: Letters to the editor Source Type: research