Aquatic therapy showed no clear advantage for chronic back pain
Both groups improved, but changes did not differ significantly between aquatic therapy and standard care.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The central result was the comparison between groups: improvements over time did not differ significantly for any measured outcome. Both groups reported improvements in pain, disability, quality of life, anxiety and catastrophic thinking about pain. The abstract therefore does not establish aquatic therapy as more effective than standard care in this trial.
The abstract provides no between-group effect sizes or confidence intervals. With a small sample, nonsignificant differences cannot establish that treatments are equivalent.
What researchers found
Between-group differences in questionnaire changes
Pain, disability, quality of life, mood, pain-related fears and sleep over 10 weeks: aquatic therapy versus standard care, using group-by-time tests.
How outcomes were assessed
Researchers used questionnaires to assess pain, disability, quality of life, anxiety, depression, catastrophic thoughts about pain, fear of movement and sleep. Both groups received individual sessions during the treatment period.
Interpreting the apparent exceptions
Fear of movement and sleep disturbance improved significantly within the aquatic group alone. That pattern does not establish a benefit over standard care, because the direct tests comparing changes between groups were not statistically significant.
The original publication
Aquatic therapy compared to standard care for chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled trial.
Vaillancourt N, Montpetit C, Rosenstein B et al.
Pain Manag · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 41527881
- Record checked
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