Many people have painful musculoskeletal conditions like back pain and osteoarthritis. These can cause high levels of disability and reduce quality of life. There is a lack of information at the national level on the proportion of people with musculoskeletal pain who have it for a long time, or who have severe musculoskeletal pain. We also know little about how many people with musculoskeletal pain have problems working due to their pain. This information on musculoskeletal health is very important for healthcare professionals and policymakers.
Most people seeking health care for musculoskeletal pain will see a GP. Routinely recorded primary care data such as that in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) can provide information on the health of people with musculoskeletal pain. However patient self-reported information like impact on work and quality of life are not routinely recorded in general practice. We have already conducted a survey of adults aged 35 and over who saw their doctor for musculoskeletal pain in North Staffordshire. The purpose of this current study is to apply our models estimating musculoskeletal health that were developed from the 8000 people responding to that survey to CPRD data to obtain national estimates of musculoskeletal health status.
The objective is to provide a detailed description of musculoskeletal health in the UK for use by policymakers, healthcare professionals, and the public.
We have undertaken a survey in North Staffordshire which included questions on musculoskeletal health such as length of time with troublesome musculoskeletal pain, severity of pain, problems with everyday life, problems working due to pain, and health in general. The questionnaire was sent to people consulting their GP for common musculoskeletal conditions like osteoarthritis, and site-specific pain like back and shoulder pain. 8000 people responded and gave us consent to link their responses in the survey to their medical records.
We are currently using information in their primary care records such as age, gender, number of consultations for musculoskeletal problems, time since first consultation, pain medications prescribed, other management, and other illnesses, to develop a statistical model to accurately estimate the answers given on their questionnaire.
The best model that we develop will then be applied to primary care information within CPRD to give us estimates of musculoskeletal health in people seeing their doctor for musculoskeletal pain at the national level, and allow us to compare across geographical regions and by level of neighbourhood deprivation.
The specific aims are to use statistical models which have been developed from responses to a survey within 11 general practices and with linkage to medical records, to determine national, regional and condition-specific population profiles in musculoskeletal consulters of:
1) Chronic high impact pain
2) Severe pain
3) Musculoskeletal health in general
4) Employment status
5) Work absence
6) Work productivity loss
7) General health
Ross Wilkie - Chief Investigator - Keele University
Ross Wilkie - Corresponding Applicant - Keele University
Alan Silman - Collaborator - University of Oxford
Andrew Judge - Collaborator - University of Oxford
Clare Jinks - Collaborator - Keele University
Dahai Yu - Collaborator - Keele University
Daniel Prieto-Alhambra - Collaborator - University of Oxford
George Peat - Collaborator - Keele University
Joanne Protheroe - Collaborator - Keele University
Karen Walker-Bone - Collaborator - University of Southampton
Kelvin Jordan - Collaborator - Keele University
Mamas Mamas - Collaborator - Keele University
Stephen Dent - Collaborator - Keele University
Steven Blackburn (Keele) - Collaborator - Keele University
Patient Level Index of Multiple Deprivation