Active-Duty Service Members Newly Presenting with Low Back Pain in Fiscal Year 2017: Health Care Utilization, Access to Care, and Private Sector Costs Over 2-year Follow-up — Military Medicine

Yuan X, Pav V, Colahan C, Miller M, Nelson H, Pasquina P, Cohen S, Isaacson B

Low back pain (LBP) has accounted for the most medical encounters every year for the past decade among Active-Duty Service Members (ADSMs) of the U.S. Armed Forces. The objectives of this retrospective, descriptive study was to classify LBP by clinical category (Axial, Radicular, and Other) and duration (Acute, Subacute, and Chronic) and examine the LBP-related health care utilization, access to care, and private sector costs for ADSMs over a 2-year follow-up period. The Military Health System Data Repository was queried in fiscal year 2017 for all ADSMs (ages 18-62) with outpatient encounters documented with any of 67 ICD-10 diagnosis codes indicative of LBP. A 1-year clean period before the first (index) outpatient LBP encounter date was used to ensure no recent history of LBP care. Patients were eligible if continuously enrolled and on active duty for 1 year before and 2 years following the index visit. Patients were excluded for non-musculoskeletal causes for LBP, red flags, or acute trauma within 4 weeks of the index visit and/or systemic illness or pregnancy anytime during the clean or follow-up period.

Yuan, X., Pav, V., Colahan, C., Miller, M. E., Hager, N. A., Pasquina, P. F., Cohen, S. P., & Isaacson, B. M. (2022). Active-Duty Service Members Newly Presenting with Low Back Pain in Fiscal Year 2017: Health Care Utilization, Access to Care, and Private Sector Costs Over 2-year Follow-up. Military Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usac363