ArticleScandinavian journal of primary health care2023
Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with low back pain in primary and secondary care settings in Southern Denmark.
Article in Scandinavian journal of primary health care, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Development of Spinal Pain Beliefs: Patient Journey Mapping From Onset of Symptoms to MRI: A Qualitative Interview Study.Musculoskeletal care · 2026Article
- Multidimensional Profiles of Recovery: Using Correspondence Analysis to Visualize Physiotherapy Outcomes in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Predicting high health care use in patients with spinal disorder in secondary care: model development and validation.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Integrated disability evaluation in low back pain: feasibility and multidomain profiling from the EL DORADO cohort.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2026Article
- Interest in mHealth Among Patients With Low Back Pain: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR human factors · 2024Article
- The chiropractors' dilemma in caring for older patients with musculoskeletal complaints: Collaborate, integrate, coexist, or separate?PloS one · 2024Article
- Predicting outcomes across treatment settings in patients with shoulder pain referred to physiotherapy: a secondary analysis of two comparable prospective cohort studies.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo describe and compare the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with acute or chronic low back pain across all health care settings treating this condition. SUBJECTS: Patients ≥16 years of age with low back pain.
main outcome measureDemographic characteristics, symptoms, and clinical findings were registered and descriptively analysed. Pearson's chi-square tested differences between the populations in the four settings. Multiple logistic regression assessed the odds of consulting specific settings, and
resultsThirty-six general practitioners, 44 chiropractors, 74 physiotherapists, and 35 secondary care Spine Centre personnel provided information on 5645 consultations, including 1462 first-visit consultations. The patients differed significantly across the settings. Patients at the Spine Centre had the most severe symptoms and signs and were most often on sick leave. Compared to the other populations, the chiropractor population was younger, whereas the physiotherapist population was older, more often females, and had prolonged symptoms. In general practice, first-time consultations were with milder cases while patients who attended for a second or later consultation had the worst symptoms, findings, and risk of sick leave compared to the other primary care settings.
conclusionThe demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with low back pain differ considerably across the health care settings treating them.KEY POINTSThe study describes the symptoms and clinical findings of patients with low back pain consulting the Danish health care system in all its settings.Patients with chiropractors were youngest, while those with physiotherapists were the oldest and most frequently female.First consultations in general practice were generally with the least symptomatic patients while those returning for a subsequent consultation had more severe disease including more sick leave compared to patients in the other primary care settings.Our findings call for caution when generalizing between health care settings for patients with low back pain.
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