Table 3.
Annual health care resources used per patient during the postrecuitment year.
| Heavy health care usersa (n = 63) |
Standard health care usersb (n = 188) |
|
|---|---|---|
| Median (IR)/% null usec (IR) | Median (IR)/% null usec (IR) | |
| Hospitalizations | ||
| Number of pain-related hospitalization daysd | 50.8% (4) | 87.8% (0) |
| Number of physician visits during hospitalizations | ||
| General practitioners | 63.5% (3) | 90.4% (0) |
| Specialists | 54.0% (2) | 89.4% (0) |
| Emergency room visits | ||
| Number of emergency room visits | 1 (3) | 75.5% (0) |
| Number of physician visits at emergency | ||
| General practitioners | 1 (4) | 79.8% (0) |
| Specialists | 65.1% (1) | 93.6% (0) |
| Ambulatory care | ||
| Number of physician visits | ||
| General practitioners | 4 (7) | 3 (5) |
| Specialists | 3 (6) | 1 (3) |
| Number of outpatient pain-related tests/interventions | 1 (4) | 62.7% (2) |
| Number of prescribed analgesics and medications to treat their side effects | 6 (3) | 4 (3) |
aPatients with total annual direct health care costs ≥ CAD 4742 in their postrecruitment year.
bPatients with total annual direct health care costs < CAD 4742 in their postrecruitment year.
cWhen median use was equal to zero, percentage of patients with zero use and IR were both reported.
dHospitalizations with a primary or secondary clinical diagnosis related to chronic non-cancer pain.
IR = interquartile range; CAD = Canadian dollars.