Evidence-based Chiropractic Care Reduces Disability

A landmark study, utilizing a randomized controlled trial, compared the response of patients treated with evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, including chiropractic, to the response of patients who received family physician-directed usual care for acute mechanical low back pain.  Patients aged 19-59, were treated at a hospital-based spine program outpatient clinic for 2-4 weeks.  Patients were evaluated at 8, 16 and 24 weeks for disability.

The improvement in their disability scores was significantly greater for the group receiving the guidelines based treatment including chiropractic adjustment for each of the evaluations, most especially at 24 weeks.  Patients also demonstrated increased improvement in physical functioning compared to their counterparts receiving medical care only.  This study demonstrated the improvement and the longevity of that improvement for patients receiving treatment according to evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, including spinal manipulative therapy administered by chiropractors, is greater than patients who receive medical care alone for acute, mechanical, low-back pain.

SOURCE: “The Chiropractic Hospital-based Interventions Research Outcomes (CHIRO) study: a randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of clinical practice guidelines in the medical and chiropractic management of patients with acute mechanical low back pain”.

Published in Spine, December 2010.  Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20889389