[Poor prognosis in back pain among patients who have filed financial claims - secondary publication].

Patients with back pain frequently file financial claims concerning causation and disability level. We examined if the financial claim could independently influence the prognosis or if such a tendency was instead caused by a more severe degree of disease. The associations were therefore adjusted for several prognostic factors. After one year the adjusted odds ratio for "no improvement" in patients making a claim was calculated to 4.2 for low-back patients and 17.4 for neck patients. The results indicate an association between financial claim and poor prognosis.