chiropractic | FACTS/RESEARCH

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 any other alternative provider group and patient satisfaction with 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)

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. 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 Containing Costs and Getting Workers Back on the Job
"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)

"The overwhelming body of evidence" shows that chiropractic management of low-back pain is more cost-effective than medical management, and that "many medical therapies are of questionable validity or are clearly inadequate."

-The Manga Report (1993)

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 et al. (2001)

For Acute Low-Back Problems
"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 chiropractic patients. A higher proportion of chiropractic patients (56 percent vs. 13 percent) reported that their low-back pain was better or much better, whereas nearly one-third of medical patients reported their low-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)

For Pain
"...evidence that in patients with chronic spinal pail, manipulation, if not contraindicated, results in greater short-term improvement than acupuncture or medication"

--- Spine, Giles L, Muller R et al. (2003).

A Randomized Clinical Trial Comparing Medication, Acupuncture, and Spinal Manipulation.
Vol 28, no 14; 1490-1503.

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 with medical 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)
Vol 92, no 10. 1628-1633.

Systemic Access to managed chiropractic care not only may prove to be clinically beneficial but also may reduce overall health care costs.

--- Archives of Internal Medicine, Legorreta A, Metz D et al. (2004)

Comparative analysis of individuals with and without chiropractic coverage.
164: 1985-1992.

For Long-Term Low-Back Problems
"There is strong evidence that manipulation is more effective than a placebo treatment for chronic low-back pain or than usual care by the general practitioner, bed rest, analgesics and massage."

--- -- Spine, Van Tulder and Bouter et al. (1997)

"Manipulative therapy and physiotherapy are better than general practitioner and placebo treatment. Furthermore, manipulative therapy is slightly better than physiotherapy after 12 months."

--- -- British Medical Journal, Koes et al. (1992)