Our objective was to investigate the effectiveness of booster sessions after self-management interventions as a means of maintaining self-management behaviours in the treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Citation Index, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and PsychINFO. Two authors independently identified eligible trials and collected data. We calculated the odds ratio for the analyses of dichotomous data and standardised mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for continuous variables. Our search identified 14 studies with a total of 1695 patients. All studies were at high risk of bias and provided very low quality evidence. For the primary outcomes, booster sessions had no evidence of an effect on improving patient-reported outcomes on physical function (SMD− 0.13, 95% CI− 0.32 to− 0.06; P= 0.18), pain-related disability (SMD− 0.16, 95% CI− 0.36 to 0.03; P= 0.11), and pain self-efficacy (SMD 0.15, 95% CI− 0.07 to 0.36; P= 0.18). For the secondary outcomes, booster sessions caused a significant reduction in patient-reported pain catastrophising (SMD− 0.42, 95% CI− 0.64 to− 0.19; P= 0.0004) and no evidence of an effect on patient-reported pain intensity, depression, coping, or treatment adherence. There is currently little evidence that booster sessions are an effective way to prolong positive treatment effects or improve symptoms of long-term musculoskeletal conditions after self-management interventions. However, the studies were few with high heterogeneity, high risk of bias, and overall low quality of evidence. Our review argues against including booster sessions routinely to self-management interventions for the purpose of behaviour maintenance.

1. Background