| Total population with MSD symptoms | Physiotherapy referral | No physiotherapy referral | p-value | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Patient variables | N = 2305 (%) | N = 456 (%) | Confidence interval 95% | N = 1849 (%) | Confidence interval 95% |  |
Age, n (%) | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | 0.003 |
 < 35 years | 439 (19.0) | 110 (24.1) | [20.2 – 28.0] | 329 (17.8) | [16.1 – 19.5] |  |
 35–50 years | 755 (32.8) | 152 (33.3) | [29.0 – 37.7] | 603 (32.6) | [30.5 – 34.7] |  |
 > 50 years | 1111 (48.2) | 194 (42.6) | [38.0 – 47.1] | 917 (49.6) | [47.3 – 51.9] |  |
Gender: Female, n (%) | 1382 (60.0) | 295 (64.7) | [60.3 – 69.1] | 1087 (58.8) | [56.5 – 61.0] | 0.024 |
Profession, n(%) | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | 0.049 |
 Farmer | 17 (0.7) | 2 (0.4) | [0.0 – 1.0] | 15 (0.8) | [0.4 – 1.2] |  |
 Self-employed | 129 (5.6) | 24 (5.3) | [3.2 – 7.3] | 105 (5.7) | [4.6 – 6.7] |  |
 Managerial staff | 169 (7.3) | 28 (6.1) | [3.9 – 8.3] | 141 (7.6) | [6.4 – 8.8] |  |
 Intermediate-level profession | 201 (8.7) | 56 (12.3) | [9.3 – 15.3] | 145 (7.8) | [6.6 – 9.1] |  |
 Salaried worker | 898 (39.0) | 183 (40.1) | [35.6 – 44.6] | 715 (38.7) | [36.4 – 40.9] |  |
 Manual worker | 241 (10.5) | 49 (10.7) | [7.9 – 13.6] | 192 (10.4) | [8.0 – 11.8] |  |
 Retired | 302 (13.1) | 46 (10.1) | [7.3 – 12.9] | 256 (13.8) | [12.3 – 15.4] |  |
 Unemployed | 348 (15.1) | 68 (14.9) | [11.6 – 18.2] | 280 (15.1) | [13.5 – 16.8] |  |
Compensation for an occupational accident or disease, n (%) | 247 (10.7) | 50 (11.0) | [8.1 – 13.8] | 197 (10.7) | [9.2 – 12.1] | 0.914 |
Consultation duration, mean (standard deviation) | 18.23 (11.69) | 18.13 (7.94) | [17.4—18.9] | 18.25 (12.45) | [17.7 – 18.8] | 0.800 |