Abstract

Patients reporting moderate to severe CNCP for at least 6 months with an active analgesic prescription from a primary care physician were recruited in community pharmacies. Recruited patients completed questionnaires documenting bio psychosocial characteristics. Using administrative data- bases, direct costs were estimated for health care services used by each patient in the year preceding and following the recruitment. Heavy health care users were defined as patients in the highest annual direct health care costs quartile. Logistic multivariate regression models using the information criterion were developed to identify predictors of heavy health care use.