Referral Patterns for People With Musculoskeletal Complaints in General Practice: An Analysis From an Australian Primary Care Database
Authors' conclusion
One-third of patients receive, and two-thirds of GPs make, referrals for musculoskeletal complaints.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with low back (≥18 years old) or neck, shoulder and/or knee (≥45 years old) complaints seen by Australian general practitioners (GPs), 2014 through 2018
- Participants
- 133,279 patients4,538 GPs269 practices
- Outcome
- Referrals to allied health and medical and/or surgical specialists: number of patients with referrals and GPs who made referrals, timing, associations and trends over time
Methodological detailslongitudinal analysis, primary care database (Population Level Analysis Reporting (POLAR))
- Longitudinal analysis
- Primary care database (POLAR)
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Referral patterns
Patients who received at least one referral
43,666
33%
GPs who made at least one referral
3,053
67%
Referrals to allied health
n = 25,830, 19%
Referrals to surgeons
n = 18,805, 14%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Surgical referrals by body region
- Knee complaints
- n = 6,140, 24%
- Low back, neck and shoulder complaints
- range 8%-15%
Time to allied health referral
Days
- Neck complaints, median (IQR)
- 14 (0-125 days)
- Knee complaints, median (IQR)
- 56 (5-177 days)
Time to surgical referral, knee complaints (sooner)
- Knee complaints, median (IQR)
- 15 days, IQR 0-128 days
Annual trend in referrals across all sites
- Annual increase in proportion of allied health referrals
- 2.2% (95% CI 1.9%-2.4%)
- Annual decrease in surgical referrals
- 1.9% (95% CI 1.6%-2.1%)
Determinants of referral category
- Varied predominantly by body region, followed by gender, socioeconomic status and primary health network
Original publication
Referral Patterns for People With Musculoskeletal Complaints in General Practice: An Analysis From an Australian Primary Care Database. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). Published 12 February 2024. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →