Articles: back-pain.
-
Spinal tuberculosis (STB) is a significant contributor to non-traumatic myelopathy. There is a rising burden in Africa, in parallel with the high prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus. We conducted a scoping review to highlight the disparities in the management and outcomes of STB in Africa. ⋯ ATT remains the mainstay of treatment, however, the duration of treatment varied widely among studies. Further research is required to explore the feasibility and efficacy of short-course ATT in treating STB in the African population.
-
Understanding how large language model (LLM) recommendations vary with patient race/ethnicity provides insight into how LLMs may counter or compound bias in opioid prescription. Forty real-world patient cases were sourced from the MIMIC-IV Note dataset with chief complaints of abdominal pain, back pain, headache, or musculoskeletal pain and amended to include all combinations of race/ethnicity and sex. Large language models were instructed to provide a subjective pain rating and comprehensive pain management recommendation. ⋯ Race/ethnicity and sex did not influence LLM recommendations. This study suggests that LLMs do not preferentially recommend opioid treatment for one group over another. Given that prior research shows race-based disparities in pain perception and treatment by healthcare providers, LLMs may offer physicians a helpful tool to guide their pain management and ensure equitable treatment across patient groups.
-
Cost-effectiveness of two trial interventions for low back pain. ⋯ Risk-stratified care was not cost-effective for medium- and low-risk individuals compared to usual care. Further research is needed to assess whether there is value for high-risk individuals or for other risk-stratification approaches.
-
Some patients with back pain contribute disproportionately to high healthcare costs; however, characteristics of high-cost users with back pain are not well defined. We described high-cost healthcare users based on total costs among a population-based cohort of adults with back pain within the Ontario government's single-payer health system across sociodemographic, health, and behavioural characteristics. We conducted a population-based cohort study of Ontario adult (aged 18 years or older) respondents of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) with back pain (2003-2012), linked to administrative data (n = 36,605; weighted n = 2,076,937, representative of Ontario). ⋯ High-cost users tended to be current/former smokers, obese, and report fair/poor mental health. High-cost users (based on total costs) among adults with back pain account for nearly half of all healthcare spending over a 1-year period and are associated with older age, lower income, comorbidities, and fair/poor general health. Findings identify characteristics associated with a high-risk group for back pain to inform healthcare and public health strategies that target upstream determinants.