• Elizabeth N Mutubuki, Mariette A Luitjens, Esther T Maas, Huygen Frank J P M FJPM Department of Anesthesiology, Centre of Pain Medicine, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands., Ostelo Raymond W J G RWJG Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Science, Vrije University Amsterdam, Amsterdam Movement Sciences Research Institute, Amsterdam, The Ne, Maurits W van Tulder, and Johanna M van Dongen.
• Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Science, Vrije University Amsterdam, Amsterdam Movement Sciences Research Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
• Eur J Pain. 2020 Feb 1; 24 (2): 325-337.

BackgroundSocietal costs of low back pain (LBP) are high, yet few studies have been performed to identify the predictive factors of high societal costs among chronic LBP patients. This study aimed to determine which factors predict high societal costs in patients with chronic LBP.MethodsData of 6,316 chronic LBP patients were used. In the main analysis, high societal costs were defined as patients in the top 10% of cost outcomes. Sensitivity analyses were conducted using patients in the top 5% and top 20% of societal costs. Potential predictive factors included patient expectations, demographic factors (e.g. age, gender, nationality), socio-economic factors (e.g. employment, education level) and health-related factors (e.g. body mass index [BMI], general health, mental health). The final prediction models were obtained using backward selection. The model's prognostic accuracy (Hosmer-Lemeshow X2 , Nagelkerke's R2 ) and discriminative ability (area under the receiver operating curve [AUC]) were assessed, and the models were internally validated using bootstrapping.ResultsPoor physical health, high functional disability, low health-related quality of life, high impact of pain experience, non-Dutch nationality and decreasing pain were found to be predictive of high societal costs in all models, and were therefore considered robust. After internal validation, the models' fit was good, their explained variance was relatively low (≤14.1%) and their AUCs could be interpreted as moderate (≥0.71).ConclusionFuture studies should focus on understanding the mechanisms associated with the identified predictors for high societal costs in order to design effective cost reduction initiatives.SignificanceIdentifying low back pain patients who are at risk (risk stratification) of becoming high-cost users and making appropriate initiatives could help in reducing high costs.© 2019 The Authors. European Journal of Pain published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Pain Federation - EFIC ®.

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