Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice
Volume 30, February 2018, Pages 91-95
Kelsey L.Corcoran DC
Highlights
- Currently 15.8% of Veterans Affairs (VA) chiropractic patients are female.
- No prior studies have investigated US female veterans’ outcomes with VA chiropractic care.
- Female veterans had a statistically and clinically significant reduction in neck pain associated with chiropractic management.
Abstract
Objective
To determine if U.S. female veterans had demonstrable improvements in neck pain after chiropractic management at a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital.
Methods
This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of medical records from female veterans attending a VA chiropractic clinic for neck pain from 2009 to 2015. Paired t-tests were used to compare baseline and discharge numeric rating scale (NRS) and Neck Bournemouth Questionnaire (NBQ) scores with a minimum clinically important difference (MCID) set at a 30% change from baseline.
Results
Thirty-four veterans met the inclusion criteria and received a mean of 8.8 chiropractic treatments. For NRS, the mean score improvement was 2.7 (95%CI, 1.9–3.5, p < .001). For the NBQ, the mean score improvement was 13.7 (95%CI, 9.9–17.5, p < .001). For the MCID, the average percent improvement was 45% for the NRS and 38% for the NBQ.
Conclusion
Female veterans with neck pain experienced a statistically and clinically significant reduction in NRS and NBQ scores.