Do Psychological and Social Factors Correspond with Health Care Utilization?

Objective Whitin 6 weeks prior to an in-person musculoskeletal specialty care visit, ​​1) Is the number of self-reported in-person contacts associated with psychological and social factors? and 2) Is the number of remote and total contacts associated with psychological and social factors? Methods We enrolled 148 adult patients in a cross-sectional study of people visiting a musculoskeletal specialist for a new or return visit. Patients completed a survey of social health, indicated the number of self-reported remote and in-person care episodes, and completed measures of unhelpful thoughts regarding symptoms, general distress, and demographics. Results Accounting for potential confounding in multivariable analysis, more self-reported in-person care episodes were independently associated with more unhelpful thoughts about symptoms (higher score on NPTQ; RC 0.05; 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.09; P < 0.05) and household income between $15,000 and $29,999 or $30,000 and $49,999. No factors were associated with total remote and in-person care contacts. Conclusions The observation that patients with greater unhelpful thinking seek out more in-person care episodes for musculoskeletal symptoms supports the concept that comprehensive care strategies attentive to common unhelpful thoughts regarding symptoms could limit unhelpful resource utilization.