Cost-Effective Management of Low Back and Joint Pain by Specialty
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Christina Bohr
Wilson FA, Licciardone JC, Kearns CM, Akuoko M. Analysis of provider specialties in the treatment of patients with clinically diagnosed back and joint problems. J Eval Clin Pract. 2015;21(5):952–957. doi:10.1111/jep.12411
Back and joint pain are common ailments that are managed by various health care professionals. Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in association with The Osteopathic Research Center at the University of North Texas Health Science Center compared the cost-effectiveness of improving patient outcomes across specialties with average total costs of treatments from health care professionals. The researchers used data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, which is a nationally represented survey that collects data on respondents’ health status and health care use and expenditures conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. To assess health benefit, self-reported measures of physical health and mental health were analyzed to derive EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D) index scores, which measure the health-related quality of life domains of mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression.
A total of 16,546 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey respondents from 2002 to 2012 who had at least 1 office-based health care professional visit for a diagnosed low back or joint problem were included in the study. All respondents included were aged 18 years or older. Respondents who received treatment for back or joint pain from more than 1 health care professional were excluded. The study compared physicians in the following specialties: osteopathic medicine, internal medicine, orthopedics, rheumatology, neurology, family/general practice, and nonphysician health care professionals: chiropractors, physical therapists, acupuncturists, and massage therapists. The age-adjusted results, based on incremental cost-effectiveness ratios using the EQ-5D index scores, showed that osteopathic medicine, family medicine, and internal medicine were the most cost-effective. Chiropractors, physiotherapists, acupuncturists, and physicians in the specialties of orthopedics, neurology, and rheumatology were not cost-effective.
In summary, for patient-reported overall health based on combined physical and mental components, the specialties of family medicine, osteopathic medicine, and internal medicine were the most cost-effective in treating low back and joint pain.
© 2017 American Osteopathic Association
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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Articles in the same Issue
- EDITORIAL
- 10.7556/jaoa.2017.049
- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
- Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment During the Third Trimester of Pregnancy
- RESPONSE
- Response
- CORRECTION
- Correction
- AOA COMMUNICATION
- Official Call: 2017 Annual Business Meeting of the American Osteopathic Association
- ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION
- Employer-Funded Complete Health Improvement Program: Preliminary Results of Biomarker Changes
- EVIDENCE-BASED CLINICAL REVIEW
- Vitamin D Deficiency, Its Role in Health and Disease, and Current Supplementation Recommendations
- CLINICAL PRACTICE
- An Osteopathic Approach to Chronic Pain Management
- MEDICAL EDUCATION
- Preparing Physicians for Rural-Based Primary Care Practice: A Preliminary Evaluation of Rural Training Initiatives at OSU-COM
- SPECIAL COMMUNICATION
- Introducing High School Students to Careers in Osteopathic Medicine
- THE SOMATIC CONNECTION
- Cardiorespiratory Benefit of Aerobic Exercise for Patients With Asthma
- Cost-Effective Management of Low Back and Joint Pain by Specialty
- Benefit of OMT in Patients Who Underwent Heart Surgery
- Addition of Osteopathic Visceral Manipulation to OMT for Low Back Pain Decreases Pain and Increases Quality of Life
- Effectiveness of OMT and OCMM for Temporomandibular Disorders
- Noninvasive Interventions Efficacious in Reducing Symptoms of Low Back Pain
- The Fundamental Frequency: A New Approach to Concussion Diagnosis in Children
- CLINICAL IMAGES
- Pacemaker Twiddler Syndrome
- Retroperitoneal Fibrosis
