Analgesic Usage for Low Back Pain: Impact on Health Care Costs and Service Use

AbstractLow back pain (LBP) is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders worldwide and a frequent cause for health care utilization with a high economic burden. A large proportion of diagnostic imaging in patients with LBP is inappropriate and can cause more harm than good, which in turn can lead to higher health care costs. The aim of this study was to determine characteristics and health care costs for patients with a diagnostic imaging for LBP in Switzerland. Groupe Mutuel, one of the biggest health care insurance companies in Switzerland and covering approximately 12% of the population, provided data for this analysis. Patients were identified by diagnostic imaging for the lumbar spine in 2016 or 2017. The study period was 2015–2019, that is one year before and two years after the year of imaging. Regression analysis models were used to identify patient variables associated with higher health care costs. A total of 75,296 patients (57% female, mean age: 54.5 years) were included into the study. Magnetic resonance imaging was the most commonly used diagnostic method (44.3%). Patients generated annual mean health care costs of 518,488,470 CHF (466,639,621 Euro) in the whole observation period; 640 million CHF (576 million Euro) in the index year. Overall, costs for LBP patients were 72% higher compared with the costs of no LBP patients. Our findings confirm the economic burden of LBP and highlight the importance of ongoing efforts to improve prevention, diagnostics and patient care in patients with LBP.

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PSY14 Health Care Costs and Opioid Use among Patients With Chronic Low Back Pain Initiating Duloxetine Versus Other Treatments

Value in Health ◽

10.1016/j.jval.2012.03.548 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 15 (4) ◽

pp. A100-A101

Author(s):

J. Hong ◽

X. Peng ◽

J.S. Andrews ◽

D. Novick

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Low Back Pain ◽

Back Pain ◽

Health Care Costs ◽

Chronic Low Back Pain ◽

Low Back ◽

Opioid Use ◽

Care Costs

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Health Care Costs attributable to Hospital-diagnosed Back Pain: A Longitudinal Register-based Study of the Danish Population

Journal of Health Economics and Outcomes Research ◽

10.36469/9872 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 266-275 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Rikke Søgaard ◽

Jan Sørensen

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Back Pain ◽

Health Care Costs ◽

Reference Values ◽

Service Use ◽

Hospital Admissions ◽

Chronic Back Pain ◽

Disease Stage ◽

Absolute Difference ◽

Care Costs

Background: Back pain is one of most frequent musculoskeletal conditions with enormous impact to health care systems and society. Analytical studies that guide the management of this disease are strongly needed, but there is a lack of cost estimates for the attributable cost of severe or chronic back pain in particular. Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the health care costs attributable to hospitaldiagnosed back pain across strata of age-, gender- and diagnostic entity. Methods: All adult Danes (N=4.3 million) were included in this longitudinal, controlled register-based study. One-year prevalence was defined according to a previously published and validated algorithm, which was applied to the Danish national patient registry. Data from other relevant health service use registries was appended along with data from the national cause of death registry in order to calculate cost rates per life year (2011 price year). The attributable health care cost was defined as the absolute difference in cost rates between individuals with versus individuals without hospital-diagnosed back pain, whereas the ratio between the two groups was used for the reporting of reference values. Results: The health care costs attributable to hospital-diagnosed back pain were estimated at Danish Crowns (DKK) 22,700 per year for the youngest age strata (16-24 years) and increased up to DKK 72,700 per year for the oldest age strata of males (>85 years). Hospital admissions and outpatient visits accounted for the majority of these costs. The ratio of health care costs for individuals with versus individuals without the condition ranged from less than 1 to almost 6, depending on the type of service use, age and gender. Conclusion: At the disease stage where back pain leads to contact with specialised health care, diseased individuals appear to use on average three times more health care than non-diseased individuals. This study provides detailed reference values, which can be used to inform health economic models.

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Case Studies in Low Back Pain

Proceedings of the Human Factors Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193128402800518 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 28 (5) ◽

pp. 465-470

Author(s):

Tarek M. Khalil ◽

S.S. Asfour ◽

E.A. Moty

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Low Back Pain ◽

Back Pain ◽

Rehabilitation Program ◽

Low Back ◽

Functional Abilities ◽

Rehabilitation Programs ◽

The Cost ◽

The Relationship ◽

Care Costs

This paper examines a number of cases involving injuries resulting in low back pain. Case history is given together with an Ergonomic evaluation profile. An aggressive low back rehabilitation program has been applied to all reported cases. The result of this rehabilitation effort related to improvement of functional abilities is given. The relationship to job environment is also discussed. The paper demonstrates the cost effectiveness considerations of low back pain rehabilitation programs with combined reference to worker's compensation laws, health care costs and productivity factors involved.

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