252273 Regional Variation in the Supply of US Chiropractors

Monday, October 31, 2011: 4:30 PM

Matthew A. Davis, DC, MPH, PhD Student , -, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, NH, NH
espite the popularity of chiropractic care, little is known about whether regional variation in the supply of US chiropractic care exists and whether differences are related to the availability of medical services. We performed a spatial analysis of the supply of chiropractors according to predefined the 306 US Hospital Referral Regions (HRR) and examined the relationship between chiropractic per capita supply and medical provider supply (both in general and according to medical specialty) after adjusting for differences in population characteristics. Data were obtained from Medicare claims, AMA and OMA master files, and the 2000 Census. According to our analyses there exist 20 fold variation in the per capita supply of chiropractors and there appears to be a slight relationship between local supply of family physicians. There is statistically significant clustering in the Northern Midwest section of the US and the strongest predictors of chiropractic supply include an older population and 100-mile proximity to US chiropractic schools.

Learning Areas:
Basic medical science applied in public health
Other professions or practice related to public health
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related education

Learning Objectives:
Examine the distribution of chiropractors across the US according to the unit of HRR. Compare and contrast regional supply of US chiropractors to medical physicians according to specialty. Examine predictors of chiropractic supply including population characteristics, proximity to chiropractic schools, and local medical physician supply.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am currently a federally funded NIH researcher whose research pertains to studying the market for unconventional health services in the United States. I’ve been the primary author on numerous studies and among these are the most current analyses on the supply and demand of chiropractic services.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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