141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

282010
Retrospective analysis of health parameters a demographically diverse chiropractic clinic: Implications for patient managment

Monday, November 4, 2013 : 8:50 AM - 9:00 AM

Shari Wynd, DC, PhD , Dept. of Physical Therapeutics, Texas Chiropractic College, Pasadena, TX
Aladin Boriek, PhD , Baylor College of Medicine
Barry Wiese, DC , Texas Chiropractic College, Pasadena, TX
Background: Chiropractic clinics in culturally diverse areas often encounter a broader spectrum of health concerns. However, there is evidence in the literature that culturally-based health trends, such as increased obesity in Hispanics exists. Given this relation, community health programs tend to target these at-risk populations. Census data indicates that our community is 48.2% Hispanic. We hypothesize that our clinic will mirror this distribution, and health parameters such as body mass index (BMI) will be greater in Hispanics when compared to the Caucasian cohort. To test our hypothesis, we conducted a retrospective data analysis of patient demographics and health parameters at our clinic. Methods: We collected the following data for each patient: age, gender, ethnicity, height, weight, BMI, resting pulse, blood pressure, medications, presenting complaint, number of treatments and status at the time of data collection. Comparative statistics (Student's t-test, non-paired, equal variances, p=0.05) were used to examine statistical relations between groups. Results: A total of 33 sets of data were reviewed. Of the 19 Caucasian patients, 37% were female, while of the 14 Hispanic patients, 64% were female. Overall, the Hispanic population was shorter and weighed less than Caucasian cohort (p<0.04). There were no differences between BMI of the two groups; however, the pooled BMI of the patients was 29.2±7.4. Conclusions: Patients presenting to our clinic were mostly overweight (or obese). Unexpectedly, there were no differences in BMI between Hispanic and Caucasian, indicating that a community clinic should characterize their patient population prior to initiating any targeted community health programs.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Diversity and culture
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs

Learning Objectives:
Describe the process by which a community based clinic can identify the needs of the population-base that they service. List patient demographics and health status measurements that are useful in understanding the needs of a community-based clinic.

Keywords: Access and Services, Chiropractic

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal investigator in several studies and have published in the the area of critical appraisal of case reports and biomechanics of the cervical spine. I have been a co-author in several critical reviews of the literature and have been published in several peer reviewed journals in these areas.
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.