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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Michael Haneline, DC, MPH, Robert Cooperstein, MA, DC, and Shaner Bongalon, BS. Department of Research, Palmer College of Chiropractic West, 90 E. Tasman Drive, San Jose, CA 95134, 408-944-6190, michael.haneline@palmer.edu

Cervical spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) is commonly used by chiropractors for the treatment of acute neck pain (ANP), even though there is little evidence to support this practice. The topic has not been investigated sufficiently, mostly because ANP is of such short duration (i.e., four weeks or less) that randomized clinical trials are very difficult to carry out. Accordingly, by the time research subjects are recruited, baseline evaluations are performed and they are randomized to treatment, many patients are well into or past the acute phase. To address the temporality issue, as well as to efficiently conduct a descriptive study of the treatment of ANP by chiropractors, we have employed a practice-based research model.

This is a report of an observational study in a practice-based setting that was designed to follow chiropractic patients with ANP as they receive SMT and other modalities commonly used by chiropractors. To date, nine participating doctors have provided prospectively collected data on their patients, including information derived from standard outcome measures of pain and disability, as well as patient satisfaction questionnaires. The doctors also completed questionnaires on each patient reporting patient demographics, the presence of secondary conditions, preexisting trauma, referrals, other practitioners seen, adverse reactions, and visit frequency. The specific levels where SMT was applied to the cervical spine, together with the numbers of manipulations applied to each particular segment were also reported. The results of this study depict the treatment of ANP by chiropractors and will facilitate the planning of future research.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to

• Recognize the need for practice-based research on this topic.
• List the variables that were explored in the study.
• Discuss the study’s findings and identify the direction required for future related research.

Keywords: Chiropractic,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation