Associations of Healthcare Utilization and Costs with Increasing Pain and Treatment Intensity Levels in Osteoarthritis Patients: An 18-Year Retrospective Study.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a complex disease, and prior studies have documented the health and economic burdens of patients with OA compared to those without OA. Our goal was to use two strategies to further stratify OA patients based on both pain and treatment intensity to examine healthcare utilization and costs using electronic records from 2001 to 2018 at a large integrated health system.

Methods

Adult patients with ≥1 pain numerical rating scale (NRS) and diagnosis of OA were included. Pain episodes of ≥90 days were defined as mild (0-3), moderate (4-6), or severe (7-10) based on initial NRS. Patients were initially classified as mild and moved to moderate-severe OA if any of eight treatment-based criteria were met. Outpatient visits (OP), emergency department

SUBMITTER: Graham J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9314498 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature