Table 3.

Comparing Imaging guideline adherent patients to nonadherent patients in the nonsurgical cohort (sample size of the nonsurgical cohort: 1245997).

	Nonadherent	Adherent	SMD	p
Sample Size (% of full cohort)	626,896 (50.3)	619,101 (49.7)
Age (mean [SD])	68.04 (13.25)	66.70 (13.42)	0.1	<.001
Female (%)	1.56 (0.50)	1.56 (0.50)	0.006	.001
Elixhauser comorbidities (median [IQR])	2.00 [1.00, 5.00]	2.00 [1.00, 4.00]	0.148	<.001
ESI (%)	24,631 (3.9)	15,388 (2.5)	0.083	<.001
Physical therapy (%)	114,510 (18.3)	190,438 (30.8)	0.294	<.001
Any imaging (%)	626,896 (100.0)	46,233 (7.5)	4.978	<.001
XR (%)	467,716 (74.6)	29,713 (4.8)	2.036	<.001
CT (%)	153,380 (24.5)	15,649 (2.5)	0.678	<.001
MRI (%)	212,252 (33.9)	14,661 (2.4)	0.896	<.001
Early imaging (%)	460,099 (73.4)
Imaging before PT (%)	619,473 (98.8)
Receiving opioid prescription within 30 days of diagnosis (%)	165,905 (26.5)	131,020 (21.2)	0.125	<.001
Total annual cost following LBP diagnosis (mean [SD])	10,711.28 (25274.36)	5,225.70 (13742.61)	0.27	<.001