Table 2.

Code definitions.

Code	Definition
Treatment Choice
Location	Driving or travel distance or location of the clinic
Social	Social advice or influence on decision (can include health professionals outside of professional capacity)
Time	Days to appointment from scheduling
Costs	Any direct treatment costs including copay, insurance, deductibles. Can include costs to the health system
Symptoms	Pain, functional limitations, or other symptoms driving their decision
Prior level of function	Goal or mention of getting back to their prior level of function
High	High functioning, athletes, manual labors, physically demanding jobs, patients capable of walking 10,000 steps
Normal	Sedentary jobs, less than 6000 steps a day, walking at most for recreation
Self-management	Reports trying to self-manage symptoms (ice, heat, massage, exercise, etc.)
Diagnosis	Desire for a diagnosis
Pathoanatomical	Pathoanatomical diagnosis (possibly not directly related to their choice)
Patients’ Familiarity-Relationship with the Health System	Patient’s relationship with the health system
Patients’ perception of provider training	Includes credentials (ex MD vs PA), years of training, specialization, experience with patients with back pain
Trust	Comfort level with their provider, office, or health system
Past experiences	Any experiences, positive or negative
Reputation of the health system	Reputation of the health system from online, social, etc.
Provider referral or recommendation	Recommendation from any medical provider previously seen regarding other providers or treatment
Question Based Codes
Primary reason for patient’s choice	Primary factor driving the patient’s choices in the health system
Choice first	The provider patient first saw for back pain
Best to diagnose	The provider the patient identifies as best to give a diagnosis for their back pain
Best treatment	The treatment that the patient believes will best resolve their back pain