title: Reduced health resource use after acupuncture for low-back pain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Acupuncture is commonly used to treat low-back pain (LBP) and clinical trials have demonstrated its efficacy. However, less is known about how the utilization of acupuncture impacts public health service utilization in the real world. This study investigates the association between acupuncture utilization for LBP and health care utilization by assessing whether patients who undergo acupuncture subsequently use fewer health care resources and whether those patients differ in their health care use from the general population with LBP.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study employed the design of a two-group pre/post secondary data analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  There were two study populations. To identify patients who received acupuncture for LBP in 2000, patient charts at Alberta registered acupuncture clinics were reviewed. The comparison group was identified from the Alberta physician claims administrative database. Acupuncture group cases were matched with four comparison cases from the general population with LBP based on gender and age.
  
  
  METHODS
  Number of physician visits and physician service cost for LBP-related services for 1 year pre- and postacupuncture treatment period were calculated from the physician claims data for both study groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For the 201 cases and 804 controls, the mean age was 48 years and 54% were female. The number of physician visits for the 1-year period postacupuncture decreased 49% for the acupuncture group (p<0.01) compared to the 1-year period preacupuncture. For the comparison there was a decrease of 2% in physician visits (p=0.59) for the same time periods. Corresponding to the decrease, physician services cost declined 37% for the case group (p=0.01) and 1% for the comparison (p=0.86).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results suggest that patients with LBP were less likely to visit physicians for LBP after acupuncture treatment. This led to reduced health services spending on LBP.
authors: Canadian Institute of Natural and Integrative Medicine, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. s.moritz@cinim.org
authors: Sabine
authors: S
authors: Moritz
authors: Ming F
authors: MF
authors: Liu
authors: Badri
authors: B
authors: Rickhi
authors: Tracy J
authors: TJ
authors: Xu
authors: Patricia
authors: P
authors: Paccagnan
authors: Hude
authors: H
authors: Quan
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000191:economics*; D000416:Alberta; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D017281:Cost of Illness; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006295:Health Resources / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006296:Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies