KMAN Publication Inc. (KMANPUB) Health Nexus 4 Serial Number 15 2026 07 01 Effectiveness of Hydrotherapy on Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Effectiveness of Hydrotherapy on Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis 1 9 10.61838/ EN Journal Article 2026 03 10 <p>The aim of this study was to determine and compare the effects of hydrotherapy on pain and functional disability in patients with low back pain. This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted based on randomized controlled trials. A comprehensive search was performed in PubMed, Cochrane Library, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases, yielding a total of 1,144 records. After removing duplicates, 920 studies remained for title and abstract screening, of which 850 were excluded due to irrelevance to the study objective. Ultimately, 6 eligible study reports, representing 5 independent randomized trial samples, were included in the systematic review. Six reports were included in the exploratory composite meta-analysis; however, two reports appeared to arise from the same parent trial sample and therefore the pooled estimate should not be interpreted as six fully independent trial effects. The results indicated that although several individual studies reported improvements in pain and functional outcomes following hydrotherapy, the pooled effect estimate from the random-effects model showed a non-significant effect in favor of hydrotherapy compared with control interventions (pooled effect size = -2.44; 95% CI: -5.88 to 1.00). Because the included studies used different pain and disability instruments, the pooled estimate should be interpreted as a composite effect estimate rather than a raw mean difference on a single clinical scale. Considerable heterogeneity was observed among the included studies (I² = 98.1%), indicating substantial variability in study populations, intervention protocols, treatment duration, and outcome measures. Egger's test (P = 0.07), Begg's test (P = 0.43), and visual inspection of the funnel plot did not show clear evidence of publication bias; however, because only 6 reports were included, these tests have limited power and cannot exclude undetected publication bias. Overall, although individual studies suggested potential improvements in pain and function among patients receiving hydrotherapy, the final meta-analysis did not demonstrate a statistically significant overall effect.</p> https://journals.kmanpub.com/index.php/Health-Nexus/article/download/5576/10645