Fibromyalgia & musculoskeletal pain
Patterns of Imaging Requests By General Practitioners for People With Musculoskeletal Complaints: An Analysis From a Primary Care Database
Authors' conclusion
GPs commonly request early diagnostic imaging for musculoskeletal complaints at odds with recommended practice. We observed a trend towards more complex imaging for neck and back complaints.
Study context
- Population
- Patients presenting to general practitioners (GPs) with low back, neck, shoulder and/or knee complaints, Australian Population Level Analysis and Reporting database, 2014–2018
- Participants
- 133,279 patients
- Exposure
- Low back vs Knee vs Shoulder vs Neck
- Outcome
- Imaging requests from 2 weeks before diagnosis to 1 year after diagnosis
- Follow-up
- 1 year after diagnosis
Methodological detailsprimary care database analysis
- Primary care database analysis
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Proportion with imaging requested, by body region
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Low back: annual trend in proportion of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) requests · 2014-2018
- Annual increase in proportion of MRI
- 1.3% (95% CI 1.0-1.6)
- Concomitant decrease in CT requests
- 1.3% (95% CI 0.8-1.8)
Neck: annual trend in proportion of MRI and x-ray requests · 2014-2018
- Annual increase in proportion of MRI
- 3.0% (95% CI 2.1-3.9)
- Concomitant decrease in x-ray requests
- 3.1% (95% CI 2.2-4.0)
Original publication
Patterns of Imaging Requests By General Practitioners for People With Musculoskeletal Complaints: An Analysis From a Primary Care Database. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). Published 27 September 2023. doi:10.
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