Should I see a Healthcare Professional or can I perform Self-care: Self-Referral Decision Support for Patients with Low Back Pain

When people get low back pain (LBP), it is not always evident when to see a general practitioner (GP) or physiotherapist, or to perform self-care. A direct correct referral is essential for effective treatment to prevent the development of chronic LBP the utmost. In the context of designing a tool t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in2016 IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI) pp. 495 - 503
Main Authors Nijeweme-dHollosy, Wendy Oude, Van Velsen, Lex, Groothuis-Oudshoorn, Karin G.M., Soer, Remko, Hermens, Hermie
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.10.2016
Subjects
Back
Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS)
Decision support systems
Decision Tree
Decision trees
Diseases
Low Back Pain
Multinomial regression analysis
Muscles
Pain
Primary healthcare
Vignette study
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Summary:When people get low back pain (LBP), it is not always evident when to see a general practitioner (GP) or physiotherapist, or to perform self-care. A direct correct referral is essential for effective treatment to prevent the development of chronic LBP the utmost. In the context of designing a tool that is able to provide a referral advice to a patient, 63 healthcare professionals (GPs and physiotherapists) participated in a vignette study. They had to judge 32 LBP cases on 1. see a general practitioner, 2. see a physiotherapist, and 3. perform self-care. In total, 1288 vignettes were judged. Multinomial regression analysis showed that Weight Loss, Trauma, and Nocturnal Pain are the three most significant predictive variables. A decision tree was generated that showed the same conclusion. This decision tree is the basis to build a tool that provides personalized referral advice to patients with LBP from the very beginning.
DOI:10.1109/ICHI.2016.90