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Determinants for receiving acupuncture for LBP and associated treatments: a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture is a frequently used but controversial adjunct to the treatment of chronic low back pain (LBP). Acupuncture is now considered to be effective for chronic LBP and health care systems are pressured to make a decision whether or not acupuncture should be covered. It has been sug...

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Autores principales: Chenot, Jean-François, Becker, Annette, Leonhardt, Corinna, Keller, Stefan, Donner-Banzhoff, Norbert, Baum, Erika, Pfingsten, Michael, Hildebrandt, Jan, Kochen, Michael M, Basler, Heinz-Dieter
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2006
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1657011/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17112374
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-6-149
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author Chenot, Jean-François
Becker, Annette
Leonhardt, Corinna
Keller, Stefan
Donner-Banzhoff, Norbert
Baum, Erika
Pfingsten, Michael
Hildebrandt, Jan
Kochen, Michael M
Basler, Heinz-Dieter
author_facet Chenot, Jean-François
Becker, Annette
Leonhardt, Corinna
Keller, Stefan
Donner-Banzhoff, Norbert
Baum, Erika
Pfingsten, Michael
Hildebrandt, Jan
Kochen, Michael M
Basler, Heinz-Dieter
author_sort Chenot, Jean-François
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Acupuncture is a frequently used but controversial adjunct to the treatment of chronic low back pain (LBP). Acupuncture is now considered to be effective for chronic LBP and health care systems are pressured to make a decision whether or not acupuncture should be covered. It has been suggested that providing such services might reduce the use of other health care services. Therefore, we explored factors associated with acupuncture treatment for LBP and the relation of acupuncture with other health care services. METHODS: This is a post hoc analysis of a longitudinal prospective cohort study. General practitioners (GPs) recruited consecutive adult patients with LBP. Data on physical function, subjective mood and utilization of health care services was collected at the first consultation and at follow-up telephone interviews for a period of twelve months. RESULTS: A total of 179 (13 %) out of 1,345 patients received acupuncture treatment. The majority of those (59 %) had chronic LBP. Women and elderly patients were more likely to be given acupuncture. Additional determinants of acupuncture therapy were low functional capacity and chronicity of pain. Chronic (vs. acute) back pain OR 1.6 (CL 1.4–2.9) was the only significant disease-related factor associated with the treatment. The strongest predictors for receiving acupuncture were consultation with a GP who offers acupuncture OR 3.5 (CL 2.9–4.1) and consultation with a specialist OR 2.1 (CL 1.9–2.3). After adjustment for patient characteristics, acupuncture remained associated with higher consultation rates and an increased use of other health care services like physiotherapy. CONCLUSION: Receiving acupuncture for LBP depends mostly on the availability of the treatment. It is associated with increased use of other health services even after adjustment for patient characteristics. In our study, we found that receiving acupuncture does not offset the use of other health care resources. A significant proportion of patients who received did not meet the so far only known selection criterion (chonicity). Acupuncture therapy might be a reflection of helplessness in both patients and health care providers.
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spelling pubmed-16570112006-11-22 Determinants for receiving acupuncture for LBP and associated treatments: a prospective cohort study Chenot, Jean-François Becker, Annette Leonhardt, Corinna Keller, Stefan Donner-Banzhoff, Norbert Baum, Erika Pfingsten, Michael Hildebrandt, Jan Kochen, Michael M Basler, Heinz-Dieter BMC Health Serv Res Research Article BACKGROUND: Acupuncture is a frequently used but controversial adjunct to the treatment of chronic low back pain (LBP). Acupuncture is now considered to be effective for chronic LBP and health care systems are pressured to make a decision whether or not acupuncture should be covered. It has been suggested that providing such services might reduce the use of other health care services. Therefore, we explored factors associated with acupuncture treatment for LBP and the relation of acupuncture with other health care services. METHODS: This is a post hoc analysis of a longitudinal prospective cohort study. General practitioners (GPs) recruited consecutive adult patients with LBP. Data on physical function, subjective mood and utilization of health care services was collected at the first consultation and at follow-up telephone interviews for a period of twelve months. RESULTS: A total of 179 (13 %) out of 1,345 patients received acupuncture treatment. The majority of those (59 %) had chronic LBP. Women and elderly patients were more likely to be given acupuncture. Additional determinants of acupuncture therapy were low functional capacity and chronicity of pain. Chronic (vs. acute) back pain OR 1.6 (CL 1.4–2.9) was the only significant disease-related factor associated with the treatment. The strongest predictors for receiving acupuncture were consultation with a GP who offers acupuncture OR 3.5 (CL 2.9–4.1) and consultation with a specialist OR 2.1 (CL 1.9–2.3). After adjustment for patient characteristics, acupuncture remained associated with higher consultation rates and an increased use of other health care services like physiotherapy. CONCLUSION: Receiving acupuncture for LBP depends mostly on the availability of the treatment. It is associated with increased use of other health services even after adjustment for patient characteristics. In our study, we found that receiving acupuncture does not offset the use of other health care resources. A significant proportion of patients who received did not meet the so far only known selection criterion (chonicity). Acupuncture therapy might be a reflection of helplessness in both patients and health care providers. BioMed Central 2006-11-17 /pmc/articles/PMC1657011/ /pubmed/17112374 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-6-149 Text en Copyright © 2006 Chenot et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Chenot, Jean-François
Becker, Annette
Leonhardt, Corinna
Keller, Stefan
Donner-Banzhoff, Norbert
Baum, Erika
Pfingsten, Michael
Hildebrandt, Jan
Kochen, Michael M
Basler, Heinz-Dieter
Determinants for receiving acupuncture for LBP and associated treatments: a prospective cohort study
title Determinants for receiving acupuncture for LBP and associated treatments: a prospective cohort study
title_full Determinants for receiving acupuncture for LBP and associated treatments: a prospective cohort study
title_fullStr Determinants for receiving acupuncture for LBP and associated treatments: a prospective cohort study
title_full_unstemmed Determinants for receiving acupuncture for LBP and associated treatments: a prospective cohort study
title_short Determinants for receiving acupuncture for LBP and associated treatments: a prospective cohort study
title_sort determinants for receiving acupuncture for lbp and associated treatments: a prospective cohort study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1657011/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17112374
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-6-149
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