Representation of specific diagnosis for low back pain using the 11th revision of international classification of diseases and related health problems: Perspectives of conventional medicine and traditional medicine

Abstract

Background: The 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11) was released on June 18, 2018, by the World Health Organization and will come into effect on January 1, 2022. Apart from the chapters on the classification of diseases in the conventional medicine (CM), a new chapter, traditional medicine (TM) conditions – Module 1, was added. Low back pain (LBP) is one of the common reasons for the physician visits. The classification codes for LBP in the ICD-11 are vital to documenting accurate clinical diagnoses. Methods: The qualitative case study method was adopted. The secondary use data for 100 patients were randomly selected using the ICD-11 online interface to find the classification codes for both the CM section and the TM Conditions – Module 1 (TM1) section for LBP diagnosis. Results: Of the 27 codes obtained from the CM section, six codes were not relevant to LBP, whereas the other 21 codes represented diagnoses of LBP and its related diseases or syndromes. In the TM1 section, six codes for different patterns and disorders represented the diagnoses for LBP from the TM perspective. Conclusion: This study indicates that specific diagnoses of LBP can be represented by the combination of CM classification codes and TM1 classification codes in the ICD-11; the CM codes represent specific and accurate clinical diagnoses for LBP, whereas the TM1 codes add more accuracy to the diagnoses of different patterns from the TM perspective.