Clinical risk factors for unscheduled health care attendance for chronic pain management, and associated treatment costs.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Effective community-based chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) management could improve treatment outcomes and reduce the burden placed on unscheduled care (USC) services.

Objectives

We aimed to characterise the extent of this burden and identify patients requiring additional scheduled community-based care to achieve effective pain management.

Methods

We identified a random sample of 4,400 adults from the general population and electronically linked health care datasets (USC, prescribing and Scottish Morbidity Registers) spanning a 12-month observation period.

Results

All-cause USC presentation was higher in those with CNCP (75.4%) than in those with no evident pain (26.4%), and two-thirds of the former reported pain as a primary symptom at presentation.

SUBMITTER: Higgins C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12530313 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature