Abstract
In Korea, low back pain is the ailment that is most frequently treated using collaborative care regimens that include aspects of Western and traditional Korean medicine. As part of a national pilot project on the collaboration between Western and Korean medicine, we aimed to investigate the clinical effectiveness of collaborative treatment and compare it with treatment methods that involved only Korean or Western Medicine practices for patients with low back pain. This nationwide, multicenter, prospective, observational, and comparative study spanned 8 weeks, during which patients with low back pain were evaluated at three time points (at baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks). The primary outcome was low back pain-related disability measured by the Oswestry Disability Index, while the secondary outcomes included severity of low back pain (as on a numeric rating scale) and quality of life (as per a 5-level EuroQol-5 dimensions questionnaire). We analyzed 150 patients (including 129 per-protocol cases) and found that the Oswestry Disability Index and 5-level EuroQol-5 dimensions showed statistically significant differences over time between the collaborative treatment group and the sole treatment group after adjusting for sex, income level, and age. Conversely, the numeric rating and EuroQol-visual analog scales showed no significant between-group differences over time. Based on our findings, we believe that collaborative treatment that includes parallelly administered aspects of Western and Korean medicine can benefit patients with low back pain by facilitating functional improvements and lead to a better quality of life.
Highlights
Low back pain (LBP) affects 540 million people across the world [1] and the loss of working hours due to LBP increased by 54% in 2015 compared to 1990 [2]
Doctors (MDs) and Korean Medicine (KM) doctors (KMDs) operate cohesively. is dual system is advantageous because it increases patient satisfaction and expands the range of treatment options [7, 8]; its pitfalls are that the medical costs increase due to redundant treatments from both systems and the treatment modality becomes dependent on the patients’ choices, which increases the conflict between the KM and Western Medicine (WM) systems [9, 10]
Initiated in November 2017, this second-stage project aims to Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine assess the feasibility of providing a “collaboration fee” to the participating institutions from the National Health Insurance System as an additional reimbursement. is fee seeks to facilitate collaboration between medical system wherein WM doctors (MDs) and KMDs by applying insurance coverage to both WM and KM treatments when a patient is treated by both an MD and KMD for the same disease on the same day
Summary
Low back pain (LBP) affects 540 million people across the world [1] and the loss of working hours due to LBP increased by 54% in 2015 compared to 1990 [2]. Is dual system is advantageous because it increases patient satisfaction and expands the range of treatment options [7, 8]; its pitfalls are that the medical costs increase due to redundant treatments from both systems and the treatment modality becomes dependent on the patients’ choices, which increases the conflict between the KM and WM systems [9, 10] To address these concerns, the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare launched the “WM-KM collaborative treatment (CT) pilot project” to investigate the utility of collaborative treatment (CT), develop an ideal CT model for each disease, and evaluate the clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness of CT. Initiated in November 2017, this second-stage project aims to Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine assess the feasibility of providing a “collaboration fee” to the participating institutions from the National Health Insurance System as an additional reimbursement. is fee seeks to facilitate collaboration between MDs and KMDs by applying insurance coverage to both WM and KM treatments when a patient is treated by both an MD and KMD for the same disease on the same day
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