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A Cost-efficiency Analysis of Primary Assessors for Patients With Knee Pain in Primary Care

NCT03822533 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 363

Last updated 2024-05-06

Study results available
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Summary

Background: Almost half of the Swedish population are overweight or obese. This will probably affect the incidence of osteoarthritis since overweight is a strong risk factor. Osteoarthritis consultations is expected to increase with 30-50% within the next 20 years. Today, in Swedish primary care, both physicians and physiotherapists are primary assessors for patients with suspected knee osteoarthritis. A task shifting with physiotherapists as the only primary assessor could increase the access rate to physicians in primary care for patients with more severe disorders. Yet, it is unclear what effects these different healthcare processes have and the costs of it.

Purpose: The overall purpose of this study is to perform an economic evaluation of two healthcare processes, where a healthcare process initiated by a physiotherapist is compared with when it is initiated with a physician for patients with suspected knee osteoarthritis.

Methods: 100 patients will be randomized either to a physiotherapists or to a physician for first assessment, diagnosis and treatment. Measurements of health-related quality of life and costs for visits to physiotherapists, physician or other healthcare provider, drug prescriptions and sick-leave will be collected. A cost-effectiveness analysis will be conducted, presenting incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) and a non-parametric bootstrapping will be conducted to demonstrate the uncertainties surrounding the ICER.

Expected results: It is expected that this randomized controlled study will show the effects on quality adjusted life years, cost-efficiency and cost-utility of two different primary assessors for patients with suspected knee osteoarthritis consulting primary care. The results could clarify which profession that is most appropriate to be the primary assessor for patients with suspected knee osteoarthritis in primary care.

Conditions

  • Osteoarthritis, Knee

Interventions

OTHER

Physiotherapist as primary assessor

Physiotherapist diagnose and treat the patient.

OTHER

Physician as primary assessor

Physician diagnose and treat the patient.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Vastra Gotaland Region

    lead OTHER_GOV

Principal Investigators

  • Lena Nordeman, PhD · Närhälsan Research and development center Södra Älvsborg

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
38 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2019-02-07
Primary Completion
2021-03-17
Completion
2022-03-17

Countries

  • Sweden

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03822533 on ClinicalTrials.gov