Impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the diagnosis of neck and low back pain in outpatient practices in Germany

Abstract

Little is known about how COVID-19 has impacted the diagnosis of neck and low back pain in outpatient practices in Germany. Thus, this study aimed to compare the number of new diagnoses of neck and low back pain in German general and orthopedic practices between 2020 and 2021 and 2019. This retrospective study included patients aged ≥ 18 years with at least one visit to one of 915 general and 145 orthopedic practices in Germany in March – December 2019 (N = 2,842,145), March – December 2020 (N = 2,810,179), or March – December 2021 (N = 3,214,419). The number of patients newly diagnosed with neck and low back pain per general and orthopedic practice was compared between March – December 2020 and March – December 2019, and between March – December 2021 and March – December 2019 using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Analyses were conducted in general and orthopedic practices separately and were also stratified by sex and age. There was a decrease in new diagnoses of neck and low back pain in general and orthopedic practices between 2020 and 2019, and between 2021 and 2019. This decrease reached statistical significance for neck pain in general practices in 2020 (−12.4 %) and 2021 (−6.1 %), and for low back pain in general practices in 2020 (−9.3 %). Similar findings were obtained in sex- and age-stratified analyses. The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the diagnosis of neck and low back pain in general and orthopedic practices in Germany. More data from other settings and countries are warranted to confirm or refute these results.