The epidemiology and medical management of low back pain during ambulatory medical care visits in the United States

Licciardone, John C

doi:10.1186/1750-4732-2-11

Table 2 Patient Visits According to Presence or Absence of Low Back Pain, 2003–2004 (N = 50,558)*

From: The epidemiology and medical management of low back pain during ambulatory medical care visits in the United States

	LBP Status
	LBP Present				LBP Absent				LBP Visits		Primary LBP Visits†
Characteristic	n	NPE	SE	%	n	NPE	SE	%	OR‡	95% CI	OR‡	95% CI
Patient age, y
<25	115	4,423	572	7	10,764	431,753	24,165	25	0.30	0.22 0.41	0.26	0.18 – 0.38
25–44	473	19,360	1,410	31	10,212	378,110	19,956	22	1.00	...	1.00	...
45–64	598	23,599	2,409	38	14,426	497,737	25,996	28	0.84	0.71 – 1.00	0.78	0.65 – 0.95
≥ 65	363	14,335	1,443	23	13,607	447,079	23,110	25	0.60	0.47 – 0.75	0.54	0.41 – 0.70
Patient sex
Female	908	36,652	2,539	59	27,581	1,035,915	46,027	59	1.00	...	1.00	...
Male	641	25,065	2,042	41	21,428	718,765	32,578	41	0.93	0.81 – 1.06	1.01	0.85 – 1.20
Patient race
White	1,375	54,358	3,825	88	42,716	1,497,330	71,034	85	1.00	...	1.00	...
Non-White	174	7,359	1,015	12	6,293	257,349	16,925	15	0.88	0.68 – 1.14	0.80	0.61 – 1.06
Patient ethnicity
Non-Hispanic	1,401	56,201	3,846	91	44,432	1,565,163	68,318	89	1.00	...	1.00	...
Hispanic	148	5,516	676	9	4,577	189,516	22,488	11	1.02	0.81 – 1.29	1.01	0.76 – 1.34
Geographic region
Northeast	441	18,566	2,856	30	10,111	340,535	31,296	19	1.00	...	1.00	...
Midwest	329	11,704	1,608	19	11,056	367,864	38,458	21	0.56	0.40 – 0.77	0.53	0.37 – 0.75
South	459	17,948	1,584	29	17,262	674,752	49,514	38	0.56	0.40 – 0.77	0.52	0.36 – 0.75
West	320	13,499	1,630	22	10,580	371,528	29,742	21	0.75	0.52 – 1.07	0.71	0.48 – 1.06
MSA status
MSA	1,293	53,704	4,318	87	42,768	1,534,434	99,888	87	1.00	...	1.00	...
Non-MSA	256	8,013	2,093	13	6,241	220,245	51,084	13	1.00	0.78 – 1.28	1.06	0.79 – 1.43
Episode of care
Initial	509	20,495	1,431	33	14,004	526,779	23,102	30	1.00	...	1.00	...
Follow-up	921	35,647	3,256	58	26,324	829,669	41,893	47	0.98	0.83 – 1.16	1.02	0.83 – 1.26
Other or missing	119	5,575	706	9	8,681	398,231	23,040	23	0.80	0.56 – 1.14	0.88	0.57 – 1.36
Chronicity of symptoms
Acute	571	23,451	1,602	38	15,741	615,627	25,898	35	1.00	...	1.00	...
Chronic, routine	609	23,893	2,932	39	17,885	561,484	30,854	32	1.37	1.08 – 1.74	1.36	1.03 – 1.79
Chronic, flare-up	255	9,483	985	15	4,493	139,324	9,200	8	2.09	1.65 – 2.65	2.03	1.58 – 2.63
Other or missing§	114	4,890	618	8	10,890	438,244	24,905	25	0.52	0.35 – 0.77	0.33	0.20 – 0.56
IPA etiology
No	1,063	42,011	2,824	68	43,823	1,569,266	68,357	89	1.00	...	1.00	...
Yes	486	19,707	1,785	32	5,186	185,413	10,269	11	3.38	2.75 – 4.14	3.33	2.64 – 4.21
PCP status
Non-PCP or unknown	903	27,985	2,959	45	33,809	925,652	54,734	53	1.00	...	1.00	...
PCP	646	33,732	2,345	55	15,200	829,027	38,795	47	0.84	0.61 – 1.16	0.82	0.55 – 1.21
Type of physician
Doctor of Medicine	1,189	47,244	2,859	77	45,316	1,636,480	72,120	93	1.00	...	1.00	...
Doctor of Osteopathy	360	14,474	2,718	23	3,693	118,199	12,647	7	2.61	1.75 – 3.92	2.68	1.77 – 4.06
Physician specialty
Family (general) medicine	549	25,210	2,259	41	8,240	405,563	26,625	23	3.28	2.26 – 4.77	3.59	2.26 – 5.72
Internal medicine	161	14,405	3,074	23	3,044	273,218	23,834	16	3.34	2.11 – 5.27	3.38	1.95 – 5.85
Neurology	237	2,255	405	4	3,202	25,403	2,685	1	3.97	2.69 – 5.85	3.25	2.07 – 5.08
Orthopedics	217	5,638	896	9	2,521	82,010	9,469	5	2.27	1.48 – 3.49	2.19	1.35 – 3.53
All other specialties	385	14,209	1,688	23	32,002	968,485	49,844	55	1.00	...	1.00	...
Shared physician care
No or unknown	1,051	45,111	3,282	73	35,679	1,339,868	60,278	76	1.00	...	1.00	...
Yes	498	16,606	1,413	27	13,330	414,812	22,483	24	1.17	0.99 – 1.39	1.09	0.88 – 1.35
Total	1,549	61,717	3,988	100	49,009	1,754,679	76,123	100		...		...

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; IPA, injury, poisoning, or adverse effect of medical treatment; LBP, low back pain; MSA, metropolitan statistical area; NPE, national population estimate for the two-year interval; OR, odds ratio; PCP, primary care physician, SE, standard error of the national population estimate.
*Table entries for NPE and SE are in thousands; percentages are based on NPE.
†Includes only patient visits in which LBP was the primary reason for seeking medical care (n = 1042).
‡Adjusted for all variables shown.
§Other options included pre- or post-surgery visits, prenatal care, and health maintenance visits.

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Osteopathic Medicine and Primary Care