Behavioral and access barriers to seeking chiropractic care: a study of 3 New York clinics.

OBJECTIVE

The overall objectives of this study are 3-fold: (1) attempt to identify the behavioral and access barriers and their resultant delay to seeking chiropractic care; (2) determine which type of delay is most common in different populations and the variables related to this delay; (3) obtain demographic information on patient populations.

METHODS

A 16-question survey was administered to new patients at the Depew Health Center, Lighthouse Free Chiropractic Clinic, and University of Buffalo Student Clinic. The data were entered in Microsoft Excel 2003 and analyzed via SPSS 14.0 for Windows.

RESULTS

A total of 240 surveys were collected and showed that the referral source, severity, home treatments, belief of discomfort, and effectiveness did not affect delay in care. Transportation, cost, insurance, and belief symptoms would resolve increased delay in care.

DISCUSSION

The 3 populations analyzed were demographically different. Access barriers and hope of symptom resolution increased delay in seeking chiropractic care.

CONCLUSION

In this study, access barriers and hope of symptom resolution increased delay in seeking chiropractic care. Utilization delay and appraisal delay appeared to increase treatment time. Demographic characteristics of the various populations were significantly different, and only younger age decreased delay in seeking chiropractic care. Condition variables had no effect in increasing or decreasing delay in seeking chiropractic care in this study.