Authors: Jørgensen C.K.; Fink P.; Olesen F.

Source: British Journal of General Practice, Volume 50, Number 456, July 2000 , pp. 537-541(5)

Publisher: Royal College of General Practitioners

Abstract:

Background. Musculoskeletal illness is a common cause of absenteeism from work, workers' compensation, and disability retirement, and accounts for 9.3% to 17% of patient contacts in general practice. To understand the increase in self-reported musculoskeletal illness and to improve treatment and prevention, it is important to know which factors to target when dealing with these patients.

Aim. To investigate whether the prognosis for patients with musculoskeletal illness referred to physiotherapy from general practice can be predicted by the presence of psychological distress and somatisation identified by a general practitioner (GP) and standard questionnaires.

Method. A multi-practice survey based on questionnaires (index and three-month follow-up). Nine hundred and five consecutive patients referred to physiotherapy from 124 different general practices in Denmark were included. Outcome measures were physical health change, sick leave, patient self-rated improvement, and change in use of medication.

Results. Psychological distress and somatisation rated by both GPs and standard questionnaires acted with almost no exception as significant predictors of all four outcome measures.

Conclusion. Psychological distress and somatisation are important factors when considering preventive initiatives and treatment of patients with musculoskeletal illness in general practice.

Articles that cite this article?

Keywords: MUSCULOSKELETAL PAIN; WORK; MENTAL HEALTH; SOMATISATION

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2000-07-01

More about this publication?

• The British Journal of General Practice is an international journal publishing articles of interest to family practitioners and primary care researchers worldwide. The journal's 2010 Impact Factor is 2.07, making it the world's second most highly cited journal of general practice and primary health care.

  Recent issues: members of the Royal College of General Practitioners receive complimentary access to the British Journal of General Practice. Access is via the members' login area using your RCGP membership details. All users can freely access articles published up to 1 year ago, and the BJGP archive is available via PubMed Central.
  
  Email alerts can be enabled by registering with IngentaConnect. For information, see Help for web users.

• Information for Authors
• Subscribe to this Title
• Membership Information
• BJGP Archive
• ingentaconnect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites

Related content

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Public Health
• By this author: Jørgensen C.K. ;  Fink P. ;  Olesen F.

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers