Newly conducted research published in the medical journal Spine reports a significant association between chiropractic care and preventing the need for lumbar spine surgery. The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) responded to the findings by emphasizing its support for the industry’s conservative approach to healthcare. (The American Chiropractic Association represents doctors of chiropractic and supports research that contributes to the health and well-being of chiropractic patients.)
Additional key findings presented in Spine revealed that patients younger than 35 years-old, females, Hispanics, and patients who listed their first care provider as a chiropractor all showed reduced need for lumbar spine surgery. Specifically, approximately 43 percent of patients whose first care provider was a surgeon underwent the surgery. By comparison, only one and a half percent of those who saw a chiropractic physician first ended up having surgery.
Other studies seem to validate the ACA’s longstanding belief that health care providers ought to start with conservative treatment strategies, such as the services provided by chiropractors before advising their patients to undergo alternatives including surgery or long-term pharmaceutical treatments. The ACA’s position is that starting with the least invasive options both benefits patients and cuts health care spending, especially for a chronic condition such as low-back pain, which afflicts tens of millions of Americans annually.
ACA President Keith Overland, DC, points out that “As governments and health systems around the globe search for answers to complicated health challenges such as rising numbers of chronically ill and disabled patients and runaway costs, research is finally demonstrating what the chiropractic profession has promoted for years: that caring for patients with conservative treatments first, before moving on to less conservative options or unnecessary drugs and surgery, is a sensible and cost-effective strategy.”
That assertion is validated by research published in Medical Care found that adjusted annual medical costs among complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) users were “$424 lower for spine-related costs, and $796 lower for total health care cost than among non-CAM users. Furthermore, CAM treatments were cost neutral to health care systems, meaning that CAM users did not add to the overall medical spending in a nationally representative sample of patients with neck and back problems.”
The Lancet, a highly respected medical journal, recently published an article written by an international group of experts who called for better solutions to back pain and other musculoskeletal conditions. They conducted an extensive survey and found while people may be living longer they are doing so more frequently with disability. The group’s study identified musculoskeletal conditions as the second leading cause of disability, and singled out low-back pain as one of the major contributors to disability worldwide. The group concluded that “creating effective and affordable strategies to deal with the rising burden of non-fatal health outcomes should be an urgent priority for health care providers around the world.”
