Leisure‐time physical activity and sciatica: A systematic review and meta‐analysis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background and objective The role of leisure‐time physical activity in sciatica is uncertain. This study aimed to assess the association of leisure‐time physical activity with lumbar radicular pain and sciatica. Databases and data treatment Literature searches were conducted in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar and ResearchGate databases from 1964 through August 2015. A random‐effects meta‐analysis was performed, and heterogeneity and small‐study bias were assessed. Results Ten cohort (N = 82,024 participants), four case–control (N = 9350) and four cross‐sectional (N = 10,046) studies qualified for meta‐analysis. In comparison with no regular physical activity, high level of physical activity (≥4 times/week) was inversely associated with new onset of lumbar radicular pain or sciatica in a meta‐analysis of prospective cohort studies [risk ratio (RR) = 0.88, 95% CI 0.78–0.99, I2 = 0%, 7 studies, N = 78,065]. The association for moderate level of physical activity (1–3 times/week) was weaker (RR = 0.93, CI 0.82–1.05, I2 = 0%, 6 studies, N = 69,049), and there was no association with physical activity for at least once/week (RR = 0.99, CI 0.86–1.13, 9 studies, N = 73,008). In contrast, a meta‐analysis of cross‐sectional studies showed a higher prevalence of lumbar radicular pain or sciatica in participants who exercised at least once/week [prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.29, CI 1.09–1.53, I2 = 0%, 4 studies, N = 10,046], or 1–3 times/week (PR = 1.34, CI 1.02–1.77, I2 = 0%, N = 7631) than among inactive participants. There was no evidence of small‐study bias. Conclusions This meta‐analysis suggests that moderate to high level of leisure physical activity may have a moderate protective effect against development of lumbar radicular pain. However, a large reduction in risk (>30%) seems unlikely. What does this review add Leisure‐time physical activity may reduce the risk of developing lumbar radicular pain.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.014 | 0.034 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.018 | 0.032 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.007 | 0.007 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".