As evidence supporting the effectiveness of chiropractic continues to emerge, consumers are turning in record numbers to chiropractic care — a preventive, non-surgical, drug-free treatment option.
Just a few interesting facts on this increasingly popular form of health care:
· Chiropractic is the largest, most regulated, and best recognized of the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) professions. (Meeker, Haldeman; 2002; Annals of Internal Medicine)
· There are more than 60,000 active chiropractic licenses in the United States. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands officially recognize chiropractic as a health care profession.
· In 2002, approximately 7.4 percent of the population used chiropractic care – a higher percentage than yoga, massage, acupuncture or other diet-based therapies. (Tindle HA, Davis RB, Phillips RS, Eisenberg DM. Trends in use of complementary and alternative medicine by US adults: 1997-2002. Altern Ther Health Med. 2005 Jan-Feb;11(1):42-9.)
· Doctors of Chiropractic undergo at least four years of professional study at one of 16 chiropractic colleges accredited by the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE), an agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education. In addition, Doctors of Chiropractic must pass national board examinations and become state-licensed prior to practicing.
· In national surveys, patients favor chiropractic over medical care for back or neck pain. Patients routinely rate Doctors of Chiropractic highly in skill, manner, and explanation of treatment.
· Doctors of Chiropractic provide care in hospitals and other multidisciplinary health care facilities.
· Chiropractic is the third largest doctoral-level health care profession after medicine and dentistry.
· Back pain is the second leading cause of all physician visits in the U.S. In fact, half of all working Americans admit to having back pain each year. According to a study conducted by the American Chiropractic Association in 2001, 43% of patients seen by a doctor of chiropractic were treated for low-back pain. For more back pain statistics, click here.
Chiropractic Research
Numerous studies have shown that chiropractic treatment is both safe and effective. The following are excerpts from a few of the more recent studies. By examining the research supporting chiropractic care, you will find that chiropractic offers tremendous potential in meeting today’s health care challenges.
For Acute and Chronic Pain
“Patients with chronic low-back pain treated by chiropractors showed greater improvement and satisfaction at one month than patients treated by family physicians. Satisfaction scores were higher for chiropracticpatients. A higher proportion of chiropracticpatients (56 percent vs. 13 percent) reported that theirlow-back pain was better or much better, whereasnearly one-third of medical patients reported theirlow-back pain was worse or much worse.”
– Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, Nyiendo et al. (2000),
In a Randomized controlled trial, 183 patients with neck pain were randomly allocated to manual therapy (spinal mobilization), physiotherapy (mainly exercise) or general practitioner care (counseling, education and drugs) in a 52-week study. The clinical outcomes measures showed that manual therapy resulted in faster recovery than physiotherapy and general practitioner care. Moreover, total costs of the manual therapy-treated patients were about one-third of the costs of physiotherapy or general practitioner care.
-- British Medical Journal, Korthals-de Bos et al. (2003)
In Comparison to Other Treatment Alternatives
“Acute and chronic chiropractic patients experienced better outcomes in pain, functional disability, and patient satisfaction; clinically important differences in pain and disability improvement were found for chronic patients.”
– Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, Haas et al. (2005)
“In our randomized, controlled trial, we compared the effectiveness of manual therapy, physical therapy, and continued care by a general practitioner in patients with nonspecific neck pain. The success rate at sevenweeks was twice as high for the manual therapygroup (68.3 percent) as for the continued care group (general practitioner). Manual therapy scored better than physical therapy on all outcome measures. Patients receiving manual therapy had fewer absences from work than patients receiving physical therapy or continued care, and manual therapy and physical therapy each resulted in statistically significant less analgesic use than continued care.”
– Annals of Internal Medicine, Hoving et al. (2002)
For Headaches
“Cervical spine manipulation was associated with significant improvement in headache outcomes in trials involving patients with neck pain and/or neck dysfunction and headache.”
-- Duke Evidence Report, McCrory, Penzlen, Hasselblad, Gray (2001)
“The results of this study show that spinal manipulative therapy is an effective treatment for tension headaches. . . Four weeks after cessation of treatment . . . the patients who received spinal manipulative therapy experienced a sustained therapeutic benefit in all major outcomes in contrast to the patients that received amitriptyline therapy, who reverted to baseline values.” ‘
-- Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, Boline et al. (1995)
Cost Effectiveness
“Chiropractic care appeared relatively cost-effective for the treatment of chronic low-back pain. Chiropractic and medical care performed comparably for acute patients. Practice-based clinical outcomes were consistent with systematic reviews of spinal manipulative efficacy: manipulation-based therapy is at least as good as and, in some cases, better than other therapeusis.”
– Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, Haas et al. (2005)
Patient Satisfaction
“Chiropractic patients were found to be more satisfied with their back care providers after four weeks of treatment than were medical patients. Results from observational studies suggested that back pain patients are more satisfied with chiropractic care than withmedical care. Additionally, studies conclude that patients are more satisfied with chiropractic care than they were with physical therapy after six weeks.”
-- American Journal of Public Health, Hertzman-Miller et al. (2002)
Popularity of Chiropractic
“Chiropractic is the largest, most regulated, and best recognized of the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) professions. CAM patient surveys show that chiropractors are used more often than anyother alternative provider group and patient satisfactionwith chiropractic care is very high. There is steadily increasing patient use of chiropractic in the United States, which has tripled in the past two decades.”
– Annals of Internal Medicine, Meeker and Haldeman (2002)
Chiropractors and Low Back Pain
The Lancet
July 28, 1990, p. 220
The editors of THE LANCET review the June 2nd 1990 British
Medical Journal article by Meade: Low back pain of mechanical origin:
randomized comparison of chiropractic and hospital outpatient
treatment. The study used 741 patients. They note:
The article “showed a strong and clear advantage for patients with
chiropractic.”
The advantage for chiropractic over conventional hospital treatment was “not a trivial amount” and “reflects the difference between having mild pain, the ability to lift heavy weights without extra pain, and the ability to sit for more than one hour, compared withmoderate pain, the ability to lift heavy weights only if they areconveniently positioned, and being unable to sit for more than 30 minutes.” “This highly significant difference occurred not only at 6 weeks, but also for 1, 2, and even (in 113 patients followed so far) 3 years after treatment.” “Surprisingly, the difference was seen most strongly in patients with chronic symptoms.” “The trial was not simply a trial of manipulation but of management” as 84% of the hospital-managed patients had manipulations. “Chiropractic treatment should be taken seriously by conventional medicine, which means both doctors and physiotherapists.” “Physiotherapists need to shake off years of prejudice and take on board the skills that the chiropractors have developed so successfully.”
