Patients and Methods:
The patients who were admitted to PM&R outpatient clinics of xxxxxx
Hospital (Center A) and xxxxxxxxxxxxx Hospital (Center B) in April and
May 2020 were retrospectively scanned from the hospital records. The
approval for this study was obtained from xxxxxxxx University Ethics
Committee (protocol number: 09.2020.716).
The variables like age, gender, number of admissions, the reason for
admission, diagnosis and the prescribed medication were recorded. The
reasons for admission were classified as follow up and prescription,
acute and chronic neck and low back pain acute and chronic peripheral
arthralgia, neuropathic pain, cramp and admission for physical therapy
and rehabilitation. The diagnosis of patients who admitted for follow-up
and prescription was noted. Records of patients with neck or low back
pain were assessed whether they had radicular pain or not. In patients
with arthralgia, the region of affected joint was also saved. If there
is a patient with more than one application, only the first application
was taken into consideration.
The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 was used for the
statistical analysis. Shapiro-Wilk test was applied to evaluate the
normality of distribution. The descriptive statistical methods
(frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum)
were employed. For the comparison of means student-t test was used.
P<0.05 was set as statistical significance at 95% confidence
interval.