title: Health maintenance care in work-related low back pain and its association with disability recurrence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare occurrence of repeated disability episodes across types of health care providers who treat claimants with new episodes of work-related low back pain (LBP).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 894 cases followed 1 year using workers' compensation claims data. Provider types were defined for the initial episode of disability and subsequent episode of health maintenance care.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Controlling for demographics and severity, the hazard ratio [HR] of disability recurrence for patients of physical therapists (HR = 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.0 to 3.9) or physicians (HR = 1.6; 95% CI = 0.9 to 6.2) was higher than that of chiropractor (referent, HR = 1.0), which was similar to that of the patients non-treated after return to work (HR = 1.2; 95% CI = 0.4 to 3.8).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In work-related nonspecific LBP, the use of health maintenance care provided by physical therapist or physician services was associated with a higher disability recurrence than in chiropractic services or no treatment.
authors.affiliation: Center for Disability Research at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA, USA. Manuel.Cifuentes@LibertyMutual.com
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cifuentes
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Willetts
authors.forename: Radoslaw
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wasiak
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055502:Secondary Prevention