The purpose of this proposal is to provide a critical third year of postdoctoral training for a naturopathic physician with previous training and experience as an economist. The specific research project involves the addition of an economic evaluation to an existing, ongoing, 12-week randomized controlled pragmatic trial of a package of naturopathic care (acupuncture, mind-body interventions, and dietary advice) versus usual care for low back pain in the workplace. Low back pain is the cause of significant productivity losses and medical claims costs for employers, and accounts for over half of medical claims for workers in the study population. Low back pain is also highly resistant to conventional care. The specific aim of the economic component of this study (the subject of this proposal) is to determine the comparable costs and effects of the naturopathic package of care and usual care in order to test the following two hypotheses. Hypothesis #1: A naturopathic package of care is more cost effective to society than usual care for the treatment of low back pain in this population of Canadian postal workers. Hypothesis #2: A naturopathic package of care is more cost effective to the employer than usual care for the treatment of low back pain.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter