Characteristics of Back Pain Callers
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An investigation into the use of emergency medical services by people with back pain.
IRAS ID
226349
Contact name
Cormac Ryan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Teesside University
Duration of Study in the UK
6 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
Back pain is experienced by approximately 80% of the population during their life. However, only a small minority (<1%) will have a medical condition (such as Cauda Equina Syndrome) which requires immediate medical intervention. Currently, it is not known how many people access Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in an attempt to meet their needs for their back pain. The demand on EMS is increasing and many of these patients could be better managed by other services. Additionally, little is known about the characteristics of those accessing EMS due to back pain, or the nature of the contacts regarding issues such as outcome of the patient contact. The aims of this study are 1) to quantify the prevalence of people contacting EMS via telephone with non-traumatic back pain 2) to describe the characteristics of people calling EMS with non-traumatic back pain 3) to describe key characteristics of the contact between the service user and EMS 4) to compare the call prevalence, patient characteristics and contact characteristics between people with non-traumatic back pain and a group of people for whom EMS contact is recommended as standard, in this case people presenting with cerebrovascular accident (CVA). A secondary aim of the work is to explore what factors might predict patient outcomes such as whether the patient is transported to A/E, whether the patient receives analgesics, and whether the patient is admitted to hospital.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
17/WS/0216
Date of REC Opinion
12 Oct 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion