J Chiropractic Medicine 2021 (Mar); 20 (1): 1–8
Table 2.
Patient Reported Experiences and Beliefs Regarding Chiropractic Care
and Prescription Drug Therapy (N = 150)
| Question | Agree + Strongly Agree, % |
Neutral (undecided), % |
Disagree + Strongly Disagree, % |
Chi-square | P Value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DC (%) | PCP (%) | DC (%) | PCP (%) | DC (%) | PCP (%) | |||
| A chiropractor is the first health care provider I want to see about my general health. |
23 | 7 | 24 | 28 | 53 | 65 | 7.69 | .021 |
| A PCP is the first health care provider I want to see about my general health. |
80 | 88 | 13.3 | 6.7 | 6.7 | 5.3 | 2.06 | .328 |
| Seeing a chiropractor as a patient for low back pain changed my beliefs about taking pain medication (n = 87). |
45 | 42 | 34 | 26 | 21 | 32 | 1.38 | .501 |
| Seeing a chiropractor as a patient for low back pain changed my behaviors about taking pain medication (n =83). |
40 | 35.5 | 29 | 29 | 31 | 35.5 | 0.254 | .881 |
| Seeing a chiropractor for back pain makes sense. | 95 | 75 | 5.3 | 24 | 0 | 1.3 | 11.68 | .001 |
| Taking/having prescription drugs for back pain makes a lot of sense. |
25 | 41.3 | 35 | 37.3 | 40 | 21.3 | 7.215 | .027 |
| I think seeing a chiropractor for back pain is useless. | 0 | 1.3 | 2.7 | 20 | 97.3 | 79 | 12.43 | <.001 |
| I think taking prescription drugs is pretty useless for people with back pain. |
19 | 8 | 25 | 31 | 56 | 61 | 3.76 | .152 |
| I have concerns about seeing a chiropractor for my back pain. |
2.7 | 24 | 6.7 | 16 | 91 | 60 | 20.36 | P < .001 |
| I have concerns about taking/having prescription drugs for my back pain. |
52 | 40 | 12 | 29 | 36 | 31 | 6.946 | .031 |
| I am confident chiropractic care would be a suitable treatment for my back pain. |
79 | 45 | 20 | 41.3 | 1.3 | 13.3 | 19.65 | P < .001 |
| I am confident prescription drugs would be a suitable treatment for my back pain. |
15 | 19 | 24 | 48 | 61.3 | 33.3 | 12.57 | .002 |
| In general, I have been satisfied with the chiropractic care I have received. |
90.4 | 73.5 | 4.1 | 14.7 | 5.5 | 11.8 | 5.49 | .064 |
| In general, I have been satisfied with the prescription drug therapy I have received for low back pain. (n = 58) |
37.5 | 29.4 | 32.4 | 37.5 | 38.2 | 25 | 1.14 | .565 |
Items regarding beliefs about back pain are modified from Dima et al Treatment Beliefs in LBP questionnaire14; responses for agree and strongly agree were collapsed together owing to smaller sample sizes; likewise responses for disagree and strongly disagree were collapsed together;
The neutral response undecided was left as is;
P = probability value. Fisher Exact test was conducted to determine the probability for items with cell counts smaller than 5 –in these instances, the exact probability is reported in Table 2.
DC = doctor of chiropractic;
PCP = primary care physician.