Box 1.
Description of Study Variables
| Variable | Units/Categories | Description (if applicable) |
|---|---|---|
| Age | Years | N/A |
| Symptom duration | Months | Self-reported duration of symptoms |
| Sex | Male/Female | N/A |
| Residence | Urban | Second digit of postal code≠0 (i.e., living in a town or city with ≥10,000 residents)46 |
| Rural | Second digit of postal code=046 | |
| Funding | Direct bill | Self-paying client |
| WCB | N/A | |
| Unable to pay | Assessment fee waived | |
| Other insurance | Third-party payer other than WCB | |
| Diagnosis | Surgical spine | Discogenic, stenotic, and medical |
| Mechanical spine | Degenerative and non-degenerative | |
| Other body part | Mechanical or degenerative other body part (i.e., hip or knee osteoarthritis) | |
| Medical/other | Other medical problem (e.g., systemic arthritis, tumour) | |
| Management recommendations | Referral to surgeon | Referral to a WSSAS surgeon |
| Referral to another medical specialist | Referral to medical specialist outside of WSSAS | |
| PT treatment | PT treatment (manual therapy, exercise instruction, education, and other modalities as needed) | |
| PT treatment+surgical referral | PT treatment followed by review by surgeon | |
| Exercise programme | Exercise programme only | |
| Nothing | No further treatment recommended | |
| Surgical management (outcome) | Surgery performed, recommended, or pending | Orthopaedic surgery (i.e., spine; hip or knee replacement) completed, on wait list for surgery, or surgery recommended by surgeon but deferred by patient |
| No surgery | Did not have orthopaedic surgery completed or recommended at the follow-up time point |
WCB=Workers' Compensation Board; WSSAS=Wall Street Spinal Assessment Service; PT=physiotherapy.