Ten-year healthcare utilization patterns among patients with type 2 diabetes and degenerative spinal disorders: a nationwide comparative analysis using nationwide sample.

Researchers in South Korea examined 10 years of healthcare records from nearly 190,000 patients living with both type 2 diabetes and degenerative spine conditions like disc problems and chronic back pain. They wanted to understand how these patients used medical services, including acupuncture and other Korean medicine treatments.

The study found that nearly two-thirds of patients used Korean medicine services, primarily acupuncture, alongside conventional Western medical care. These patients visited healthcare providers much more frequently throughout the year, but their overall healthcare costs were similar to patients who only used Western medicine. This happened because acupuncture and other Korean medicine services cost less per visit than hospital-based treatments.

Patients using only Western medicine tended to rely more on tertiary hospitals and higher-cost pain medications and anti-inflammatory drugs. In contrast, those incorporating acupuncture used more outpatient services focused on managing chronic pain rather than just diabetes control alone.

What this means for patients: If you have both diabetes and chronic back or spine pain, acupuncture may offer a cost-effective option for managing your pain as part of a comprehensive care plan. The study suggests that combining different types of care—acupuncture for pain management alongside diabetes treatment—may help address the complex needs of patients with multiple conditions without necessarily increasing overall costs. The high frequency of acupuncture visits among users suggests patients found value in regular, conservative pain management.

If you're considering acupuncture for spine pain related to diabetes complications, seek a licensed acupuncturist with experience treating patients with diabetes and chronic pain conditions.

This retrospective cohort study analyzed 10 years (2010-2019) of claims data from South Korea's HIRA-NPS database, including 188,716 patients with coexisting T2DM (ICD-10: E11) and degenerative spinal disorders (M47, M48, M51, M54, S33), generating 9,590,400 total claims. Korean medicine (KM) users (62.9% of cohort, defined as ≥1 KM claim annually) demonstrated significantly higher annual claim frequency compared to Western medicine-only users, yet maintained similar per-patient expenditures due to lower unit costs of outpatient KM services, predominantly acupuncture. Non-KM users showed greater reliance on tertiary facilities and higher-cost pharmacotherapy, particularly analgesics and anti-inflammatories. Baseline characteristics were comparable (SMD <0.26), with back pain (M54) showing largest between-group difference. Annual percent change was calculated via log-linear regression. Clinical implications: In multimorbid T2DM-spine populations, acupuncture-inclusive care pathways facilitate high-frequency, multimodal conservative pain management at lower cost, suggesting potential for integrated chronic disease models combining glycemic control with non-pharmacological pain interventions.