research article
Lennart Carlsson1*, Holger Olofsson2, Bo Christer Bertilson1,3
1Division of Family
Medicine and Primary care, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and
Society, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden
2Kallhälls
Nya Vårdcentral, Region Stockholm, Sweden
3Academic Primary Healthcare Centre, Region Stockholm, Sweden
*Corresponding author: Lennart Carlsson, Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden. Tel: +46706084507; Email: lennart.carlsson@ki.se
Received Date: 29 January, 2019; Accepted Date: 14 February, 2019; Published Date: 21 February, 2019
1.
Abstract
In Primary Care,
multimorbidity is the norm in most patients. A large part of these have pain
disorders, very often related to the spine. Patients with back pain have a
higher degree of multimorbidity than many other groups of patients. The aim of
this epidemiological study was to elucidate various patterns of multimorbidity
in terms of clusters of diseases among patients with low back pain (LBP).
1.1.
Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional
study was performed containing all registered encounters with patients
receiving a LBP related diagnosis at one Primary Health Care Centre (PHCC) in
Stockholm area, Sweden. The period October 2011 to September 2014 was studied.
The Johns Hopkins Case-mix System “Adjusted Clinical Groups” (ACG©)
was used for grouping and analysing data.
1.2.
Results: Out of 15,092
patients visiting the PHCC during the 3-year period exactly 10,000 got at least
one diagnosis and 1,431 of those patients were diagnosed with LBP. Most common
simultaneous groups of diagnoses were in order administrative concerns,
hypertension, other musculoskeletal disorders and neurologic signs and
symptoms. The proportion of patients with LBP disorders having five or more
diagnoses was about 29%, and the equivalent proportion of patients without LBP
was 9%. Different types of morbidity in terms of Aggregated Diagnosis Groups
(ADGs) showed that about 55% of patients with LBP had three or more ADGs
compared to 26% among patients who had no LBP. Patterns of multimorbidity in
terms of the ACGs showed that patients with LBP were about twice as common in
higher risk categories than patients without those diagnoses (52% vs 26%)
1.3.
Discussion: Our study showed that
patients with LBP had a high degree of multimorbidity compared to those who did
not have LBP and type of concurrent diseases differed between the two groups.
The patterns of diagnosis clusters were analysed further and showed results
that differed between various groups of patients with LBP, predominately
depending on age. Further analysis is needed in order to understand what causes
the various patterns of multimorbidity among patients with LBP.
2.
Keywords: Low Back Pain; Multimorbidity;
Adjusted Clinical Groups; Primary Care
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