Photo Credit: Ratz Attila

The following is a summary of “Evaluating the representativeness of a cohort study of low back pain: using electronic health record data to make direct comparisons of study participants with non-participants from the study population,” published in the November 2024 issue of Pain by Suri et al. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the representativeness of randomized trials and observational studies of pain or musculoskeletal conditions by directly comparing enrolled study samples to the general population, considering a more comprehensive range of factors beyond demographics.   

They used electronic health record data from the Veterans Affairs health system to compare 417 participants with low back pain and 15,218 potentially eligible non-participants contacted for the same.  

The results showed no substantial differences between participants and non-participants for most factors, with minimal differences when present. Participants were older (odds ratio (OR) =1.02 per year [95% CI 1.01-1.03], P <0.001), more likely female (OR=1.59 [95% CI 1.26-2.01], P <0.001), had prior lumbosacral radicular syndrome (OR=1.37 [95% CI 1.08-1.74], P =0.01), and reported lower pain intensity (OR=0.96 per NRS point [95% CI 0.0.93-1.00], P =0.04). Current smokers (OR=0.54 [95% CI 0.39-0.75], P <0.001) and Asians (OR=0.62 [95% CI 0.39-0.98], P <0.001) were less likely to participate.   

Investigators concluded the approach of directly comparing research participants with non-participants provided a valid method for assessing the representativeness of study samples in pain research. 

Source: jpain.org/article/S1526-5900(24)00708-9/abstract