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General practitioners (GPs) are usually the first point of contact with the health care system for people with back problems.

Management of back problems in general practice includes:

  • assessment of the condition(s)
  • referral to other health services (specialists, allied health practitioners, diagnostic testing and hospitals)
  • prescribing, advising and supplying medication, and
  • providing patient education.

Back problems are among the most commonly managed conditions in general practice. In 2009–10, 3.3 of every 100 GP–patient encounters were for the management of back problems—about 3.9 million GP encounters.

The rate of GP-patient encounters for back problems was similar for men (3.5 per 100 encounters) and women (3.2 per 100 encounters).

Back problems were more likely to be managed by GPs in patients aged 25 and over than younger patients, with the highest rate among the 45–64 age range.

Figure 1: Rate of back problems managed by general practitioners by patient age group, 2009–10

Back problems - visits to GPs PNG

Note: The thin vertical bars attached to the top of each column are 95% confidence intervals. We can be 95% confident that the true value is within the interval depicted.

Source: Family Medicine Research Centre, University of Sydney analysis of BEACH survey 2009–10 data. Source data

Source table

Table 1: Sex and age of people whose back problems were managed by GPs, 2009-10
Population group Rate per 100 encounters 95% confidence interval (a)
All 3.3 3.1–3.6
Sex (b)
Males 3.5 3.2–3.8
Females 3.2 3.0–3.5
Age group (c)
5–14 0.4 0.2–0.6
15–24 1.4 1.1–1.7
25–44 3.9 3.5–4.3
45–64 4.7 4.2–5.1
65–74 3.8 3.4–4.3
75+ 3.4 3.0–3.8

(a) Shows the lower and upper limits of confidence interval. We can be 95% confident that the true value is within the interval.
(b) Sex-specific rate per 100 GP-patient encounters in each sex group.
(c) Age-specific rate per 100 GP-patient encounters in each age group.

Note: Information about general practice activities is collected through the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) survey. In BEACH surveys, problems managed at general practices are classified according to the second edition of the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2). The ICPC-2 codes used for back problems were L02, L03, L84 and L86. Refer to Britt et al. (2010) for more information about the Beach survey.

Source: Family Medicine Research Centre, University of Sydney analysis of BEACH Survey 2009–10 data.