An Exploratory Health Outcome Analysis of Lumbar Surgery Patients Utilizing Korean Medical Services: Using Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service-National Patients Sample (HIRA-NPS 2019) Data

Objectives This study aimed to analyze the medical utilization of low back pain (LBP) patients after back surgery and estimate the medical costs of Korean and Western medicine collaborative treatment, odds ratio, and hazard ratio between the two groups using the 2019 Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service-National Patient Sample (HIRA-NPS-2019). Methods Data management and descriptive analysis, logistic regression, and survival analysis were conducted for defining and estimating the LBP patients after back surgery in the NPS 2019 dataset. Results A total of 216,424 patients out of 991,189 were identified as having LBP. Among the patients with LBP, 1,734 were treated with surgery while 214,690 were not. Among those who had surgery, 937 were treated with conventional treatments only and 797 underwent Korean medicine treatments. The odds ratio of the logistic regression analysis was 0.7129, suggesting that Korean medical treatment experience group had a 28.7% lower risk of reoperation than the Western medical treatments only group. The hazard ratio of the survival analysis was 0.9145; thus, the risk probability of reoperation was estimated to be approximately 8.55% lower. The 50% risk of reoperation was 69 days (0.5044) for the conventional group, and 97 days (0.5008) for the Korean medical group in the survival analysis using the Kaplan-Meier graph. Conclusions These results could be utilized in future studies in conducting economic evaluation for estimating cost-effectiveness of Western medicine and Korean medicine treatment compared to Western medicine alone in LBP patients after back surgery in a South Korean perspective. mended and should be applied while taking the necessary precautions.