Delivering Value Through Equitable Care for Low Back Pain: A Renewed Call to Action.

Equitable care for low back pain (LBP) is key to ensuring the value and sustainability of services delivered by physical therapists. In this Perspective, we discuss how social determinants of health, implicit provider biases, structural characteristics of the health care system, and health care policies contribute to disparate care for many individuals with LBP. We aim to increase awareness of equity as a key component of value in physical therapy and highlight steps physical therapists can take to improve equitable LBP care. This "call to action" underscores the need to study, demonstrate, and advance equitable care for LBP by physical therapists to improve outcomes for patients and ensure the growth and sustainability of the physical therapy profession. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther, Epub 17 May 2022. doi:10.2519/jospt.2022.10815.

[1]  R. J. Yong,et al.  Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Treatment of Chronic Pain. , 2020, Pain medicine.

[2]  J. Trogdon,et al.  The association between the supply of select nonpharmacologic providers for pain and use of nonpharmacologic pain management services and initial opioid prescribing patterns for Medicare beneficiaries with persistent musculoskeletal pain. , 2020, Health services research.

[3]  Dan P. Ly.  Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Evaluation and Management of Pain in the Outpatient Setting, 2006–2015 , 2019, Pain medicine.

[4]  James M. Dahlhamer,et al.  Prevalence of Chronic Pain and High-Impact Chronic Pain Among Adults — United States, 2016 , 2018, MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report.

[5]  J. Salas,et al.  Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Receipt of Opioid Medication for New Back Pain Diagnosis , 2017, The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

[6]  Astha Singhal,et al.  Racial-Ethnic Disparities in Opioid Prescriptions at Emergency Department Visits for Conditions Commonly Associated with Prescription Drug Abuse , 2016, PloS one.

[7]  Patrick S. Forscher,et al.  Long-term reduction in implicit race bias: A prejudice habit-breaking intervention. , 2012, Journal of experimental social psychology.

[8]  Marc S. Goldstein,et al.  Delivering the Physical Therapy Value Proposition: A Call to Action , 2012, Physical Therapy.

[9]  Israel De Alba,et al.  Racial/Ethnic Discrimination in Health Care: Impact on Perceived Quality of Care , 2010, Journal of General Internal Medicine.

[10]  J. Rizzo,et al.  Use of Outpatient Physical Therapy Services by People With Musculoskeletal Conditions , 2007, Physical Therapy.

[11]  L. Campbell,et al.  The unequal burden of pain: confronting racial and ethnic disparities in pain. , 2003, Pain medicine.

[12]  John T Chibnall,et al.  Provider judgments of patients in pain: seeking symptom certainty. , 2009, Pain medicine.