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.