Table 1.
Impact of propensity score adjustment for development cohort
| Unadjusted for propensity score | Adjusted for decile of propensity score | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Started Acupuncture (n = 952) |
Did Not Start Acupuncture (n = 59,564) |
Standardized differencea | Standardized differencea | |
| Propensity score characteristicsb | ||||
| Opioid therapy plan | 28.8% | 17.8% | 0.261 | 0.023 |
| Physical therapy past 30 days | 16.3% | 15.1% | 0.032 | −0.008 |
| Physical therapy past 31–180 days | 25.0% | 11.1% | 0.368 | 0.018 |
| Physical therapy past 181–365 days | 24.5% | 12.1% | 0.324 | 0.016 |
| Nonspecific chronic pain | 29.6% | 14.4% | 0.373 | 0.031 |
| Substance abuse | 4.6% | 4.1% | 0.028 | 0.003 |
| Sleep problem | 23.6% | 14.6% | 0.232 | 0.016 |
| History of tobacco use | 14.2% | 12.9% | 0.036 | 0.000 |
| Anxiety | 23.7% | 15.6% | 0.206 | 0.017 |
| Pain treatment procedure | 38.2% | 22.5% | 0.344 | 0.020 |
| Pain diagnosis procedure | 65.3% | 52.5% | 0.261 | 0.011 |
| Pain medication | 81.2% | 65.0% | 0.370 | 0.008 |
| Age (years) | 53.8 (14.0) | 55.2 (15.0) | −0.097 | −0.008 |
| Number of outpatient visits | 15.9 (10.8) | 10.4 (10.1) | −0.543 | 0.011 |
| Months since cohort entry | 29.1 (14.7) | 25.2 (15.6) | −0.246 | 0.010 |
| Ambulatory Charlson score | 1.8 (2.2) | 1.9 (2.1) | −0.036 | −0.006 |
| Demographic Characteristics | ||||
| Female | 72. 8% | 62.0% | 0.232 | 0.146 |
| White | 91.2% | 91.9% | −0.023 | −0.033 |
| Hispanic | 5.4% | 7.7% | −0.091 | −0.093 |
| Medical and Psychiatric Comorbidities | ||||
| Depression | 21.5% | 15.8% | 0.148 | 0.014 |
| Types of Nonmalignant Chronic Pain (NCP) | ||||
| Back and/or neck pain | 80.6% | 55.9% | 0.539 | 0.407 |
| Joint pain (including osteoarthritis) | 79.3% | 79.3% | 0.001 | −0.114 |
| Fibromyalgia/other myofascial pain | 30.1% | 11.8% | 0.461 | 0.257 |
| Headaches | 18.0% | 12.0% | 0.167 | 0.077 |
| Neuropathy | 1.5% | 1.5% | −0.001 | 0.011 |
| Temporomandibular disorders | 5.0% | 3.0% | 0.105 | 0.046 |
| Carpal tunnel syndrome | 6.5% | 5.8% | 0.028 | −0.016 |
| Abdominal pain | 6.3% | 4.8% | 0.068 | −0.018 |
| Other NCP | 5.8% | 6.6% | −0.034 | −0.057 |
| Two of above NCP types | 81.1% | 60.6% | 0.457 | 0.224 |
| Pharmacotherapy | ||||
| Any use of an opioid | 19.9% | 11.8% | 0.223 | 0.025 |
| Opioid morphine equivalent dose (MED) | 0.3 (1.7) | 0.2 (0.9) | 0.122 | −0.012 |
| ≥ 120 MED | 7.9% | 4.5% | 0.141 | −0.007 |
| Mental health related | ||||
| Any antidepressant use | 47.6% | 35.4% | 0.247 | 0.036 |
| Any anxiolytic use | 33.1% | 21.2% | 0.270 | 0.041 |
| Any benzodiazepine use | 35.4% | 21.1% | 0.321 | 0.067 |
aStandardized difference expressed as (difference in means)/(pooled standard deviation) for continuous measures and as 2*(arcsin(√P1)-arcsin(√P2)) for binary data. For propensity score decile adjusted data, standardized differences calculated using same standard deviation as for unadjusted data in order to make comparison of standardized differences with and without adjustment more meaningful
bContinuous data expressed as mean (standard deviation)