The use of complementary and integrative health approaches for chronic musculoskeletal pain in younger US Veterans: An economic evaluation.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To estimate the cost-effectiveness to the US Veterans Health Administration (VA) of the use of complementary and integrative health (CIH) approaches by younger Veterans with chronic musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) pain.

Perspective

VA healthcare system.

Methods

We used a propensity score-adjusted hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), and 2010-2013 VA administrative data to estimate differences in VA healthcare costs, pain intensity (0-10 numerical rating scale), and opioid use between CIH users and nonusers. We identified CIH use in Veterans' medical records through Current Procedural Terminology, VA workload tracking, and provider-type codes.

Results

We identified 30,634 younger Veterans with chronic MSD pain as using CIH and 195,424 with no CIH use. C

SUBMITTER: Herman PM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6550429 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature