If we want to contain national health care costs, we must educate people about the benefits of
chiropractic care, and make it a bigger part of the US health care solution. I
encourage you to share this with your Workplace Wellness Department or HR, also
anyone you know that does not know the benefits of chiropractic care!
Summary of research on Chiropractic 2011- form an article in Decembers Dynamic Chiropractic News paper- I’ve condensed the studies into short, readable bits.
Here are just a few samples of the types of research done in
the past year and the outcomes:
COST EFFECTIVNESS
RAND corporation studied geriatric population-specifically comparing
the health of those who did regular maintenance chiropractic adjustments to
those who did not- they found that 95.7% of those under care were free from the
use of nursing homes vs 80.8 % of those not under care;
73.9% of chiropractic users were Free from hospitalizations
for the past 23 years vs 52.4% of the non- chiropractic group;
75% of the chiropractic users were “more likely to report a better health status, more likely to
exercise vigorously and more likely to be mobile in the community “ vs Less
than half of the non- chiropractic users.
Another study involving the elderly population compared
direct expenditures ( hospital care, physicians services, nursing home use)
between groups of patients under chiropractic maintenance care and those who
were not. Nearly a threefold savings of average expenditures was reported as
follows: $3,105 for patients under chiropractic maintenance care vs $10,041 for
patients receiving no chiropractic maintenance care.
INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY
A study looked at the savings when onsite chiropractic care
was offered in an industrial setting. Care was available 2 times per week and
included early detection, treatment and occupational management of muscle and- spine/other joint injuries. For the 21 months the program was studied, the total number of days lost, cost per claim, rate premiums and especially the number of surgeries decreased dramatically.
Cost savings from the avoided surgeries alone amounted to $900,000 dollars.
REDUCED INJURIES
A study involving 59 players from Australian Rugby Foot ball
teams. The study compared those who used the standard medical care for sports
injuries and those who included regular chiropractic care along with the
standard medical treatment. The players who used chiropractic started with a
minimum of one adjustment per week for 6 weeks and went to one adjustment every
two weeks thereafter.
The chiropractic group was found to have fewer injuries to
the knees, hips and legs and less time lost from play. Incidentally, they also
reported less back pain.
FUNCTIONAL IMPROVEMENT
In this study, chronic low back pain patients were split
into two groups. Both groups received 3 adjustments a week for a month. Then,
one group continued with adjustments once every three weeks for an additional 9
months. The group continuing with maintenance care continued to improve over
the full 10 month period. The group that stopped care after a month reverted
back to pre adjustment pain and disability levels by the end of the 10 month period.
LOWER DISABILITY RECURRENCE
Workers Compensation data collected in Illinois, Maryland
Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Wisconsin involving 894 cases revealed lower
disability recurrence for patients under chiropractic care compared to those
receiving physical therapy or medical care.
Physical therapy treated patients had twice as many recurrences as those
under chiropractic care, and medically treated patients had 45% more
recurrences than those under chiropractic care.
