Comparing the Satisfaction of Low Back Pain Patients Randomized to Receive Medical or Chiropractic Care: Results From the UCLA Low-Back Pain Study

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Am J Public Health. 2002 October; 92(10): 1628–1633.

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TABLE 2

—Means and Standard Deviations or Percentages of Postrandomization Variables, by Assigned Provider Group

	Assigned Provider Group
Variable	Medical (n = 340)	Chiropractic (n = 341)	P value^a
Mean satisfaction score (SD)	30.6 (7.1)	36.1 (5.4)	< .001
Mean no. of items of self-care advice^b (SD)	1.6 (1.6)	2.3 (1.4)	< .001
Mean no. of classes of medication recommended (SD)	1.3 (0.8)	0.1 (0.3)	< .001
% reporting explanation of treatment	16	61	< .001
% reporting past benefit from assigned treatment^c	75	50	< .001
% reporting any experience with assigned treatment^c	91	56	< .001
% reporting past benefit from assigned treatment (among patients having experience with assigned treatment)^c,d	83	90	.03
% with any radiological study	4	3	.3
Mean improvement in disability score^e (SD)	1.9 (4.9)	2.0 (4.7)	.8
Mean improvement in average pain^e (SD)	0.6 (2.0)	0.7 (2.0)	.4
Mean confidence in treatment^c (SD)	6.7 (2.7)	6.9 (2.4)	.2
Mean co-payment per visit, $ (SD)	4.6 (5.1)	4.6 (5.6)	1.0
Mean visit duration, min (SD)	14.4 (8.1)	14.7 (8.3)	.6
Mean no. of back pain visits to primary provider (SD)	1.1 (0.5)	2.7 (1.5)	< .001

Note. Variables were measured at 4 weeks (or over the 4-week interval) unless otherwise noted.

^aFor t test (continuous variables) or χ² test (dichotomous variables) of no difference between groups.

^bMore patients in the chiropractic than in the medical group reported receiving advice about back exercises (odds ratio [OR] = 7.4; 95% confidence interval [CL] = 5.1, 11), heat (OR = 2.7; 95% CI = 2.0, 3.8), and pain management (OR = 2.1; 95% CI = 1.5, 3.0). For other types of advice, the ORs of reporting advice were similar for chiropractic vs medical patients (adjusted OR for receiving any of the remaining types of advice = 0.94; 95% CI = 0.78, 1.1; P > .05 for Woolf’s test for homogeneity).

^cMeasured at baseline. For patients assigned to the chiropractic group, past benefit could be from chiropractic or from other complementary and alternative therapies.

^dn = 309 for medical group; n = 192 for chiropractic group.

^eChange between scores measured at baseline and 2 weeks. A positive score indicates improvement.