As part of the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial, the study authors examined 1,171 patients who underwent treatment for disc herniation. The patients either received a standard open discectomy or nonoperative treatment.
There was substantial improvement in all patients and surgical intervention was similar among all levels of education. However, among patients in the nonoperative group, higher education correlated with greater overall improvement after four years in bodily pain and Oswestry Disability Index.
After four years, patients who were college graduates or above had a BP score of 36.3, significantly above the patients who had only a high school degree or less, reporting 25.5.
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