Frequency of use of diagnostic and manual therapeutic procedures of the spine taught at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College: A preliminary survey of Ontario chiropractors. Part 1 - practice characteristics and demographic profiles.

BACKGROUND

Students learn a plethora of physical examination and manual therapy procedures over the course of their chiropractic education. However, it is uncertain to what extent they continue to use these procedures in practice after graduation.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to determine which diagnostic and therapeutic procedures of the spine are most commonly utilized by chiropractors practicing in Ontario. In Part 1 of this study (presented here), the demographics and practice patterns of the respondents are presented. Part 2 of this study will present the results of the utilization rates of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures used by respondents.

METHODS

The study consisted of a paper-based survey that was sent to 500 pseudo-randomly selected Ontario chiropractors who responded confidentially. Survey questions inquired into demographic and practice style characteristics.

RESULTS

There were 108 respondents to the survey, giving a response rate of 22.4%. Many chiropractors self-identified themselves with more than one practice style characteristic such as 72.4% of the self-described pain-based chiropractors who also described themselves as evidence-based, compared with 51.9% of subluxation-based chiropractors who also described themselves as evidence-based. Diversified technique was the most commonly employed technique used by 90.7% of respondents, followed by trigger point therapy indicated by 57.4% of respondents.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite a low response rate, respondents reported practice characteristics in this study that were similar to practice characteristics previously published, particularly in terms of professional demographics and techniques employed. While Diversified was the most commonly used technique, respondents reported higher levels of use of proprietary soft tissue techniques systems and upper cervical techniques than have been previously reported.