Table 1
Table of results for back pain papers.
| Author | Reference | Design | N/Np | Main Results |
| Hurwitz | 5 | Random sample of chiropractors from 6 sites | 185/131 (70%) | 68% of charts documented care for LBP; SMT was documented in 83% of charts. Chiropractic use rate has doubled in the past 15 years. |
| Shekelle | 6 | Analysis of insurance claims forms from 6 sites | 5279 | Visit rate for chiropractic was 41 per 100 person-years and rate of use of 7.5% |
| Cote | 8 | Mail survey | 2184/1131 (55%) | People seeking care for back pain have worse health care status than those who do not. |
| Kelner | 9 | Interviews | 300 | 87% of chiropractic patients sought care for LBP, with 77% believing their health care problem was serious in nature. |
| Walker | 10 | Mail survey | 1768/1913 (69.1%) | 55.5% of respondents with LBP in past 6 months did not seek care for it. Increased care seeking was associated with greater pain and disability, fear of pain impacting future activities, and female sex. |
| Sherman | 11 | Telephone interviews | 249 | Chiropractic was used the highest percentage of patients (54%); chiropractic patients had the highest rate of treatment-related discomfort of all groups. |
| Caswell | 12 | Self-reporting questionnaires | 150 | 36% of the conventional therapy group had used at least 1 CAM therapy, while 62 of people in the CAM group had used conventional care. The higher the sociodemographic group, the likelier you were to use CAM. |
| Sundararajan | 13 | Prospective cohort study | 1580 | Factors associated with seeing multiple providers included presence of sciatica, higher Roland-Morris score, days to functional recovery and duration of pain prior to first visit. |
| Scheumier | 14 | Retrospective/prospective observational study | 194 retrospective; 344 prospective | There was a substantial shift of referrals to manipulation practitioners under the scheme. Prospective patients had fewer referrals to secondary care, less drug use, and fewer certififed sickness days. Chiropractors used more x-ray than other practitioners. |
| Jamison | 15 | Mail survey | 820/230 (27%) | Referral for visceral conditions met with little support; referral for LBP with frequent support |
| Leboeuf-Yde | 16 | Patient interviews by chiropractors | 96/66 (66%) | 82% of patients sought care for LBP; few sought care for visceral problems; most patients had short-term problems. |
| Cherkin | 17 | Random sample survey | Acu: 217/133 (61%) Chiro: 205/130 (63%) MT: 226/126 (56%) Naturo:170/99 (58%) | For chiropractic: woman made up 60% of visits; children 4%; older folks 20%; African American and Hispanic <10%; 80% of visits were by self referral; DCs provided equal amounts of chronic and acute care; back symptoms most common reason for seeking care. |
| Feuerstein | 19 | Analysis of National Medical Expenditure Studies | Percentage of people receiving chiropractic care was lower in 1997 compared to 1987, while percent of those receiving physical therapy grew. | |
| Mayer | 22 | Mail survey | 450/158 (35%) | ~75% of chiropractors use 6 or more exercises for treating patients with LBP |
| Whitman | 23 | Interviews | 131 | There was a significant interaction between time and specialty certification status, but this disappeared on regression analysis. |
| Smith | 24 | Claims data analysis | 9314 care episodes | Total payments within and across episodes were much greater for medically initiated episodes compared to chiropractic ones. |