Chiropractic Care and Patient Satisfaction, a Synopsis of Research
Patient satisfaction is increasingly recognized to be as important as outcomes in clinical trials. A synopsis of recent studies on patient satisfaction with chiropractic care follows.
Patient Satisfaction With Chiropractic Care J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1993 (Jan); 16 (1): 25–32
Patients expressed high levels of satisfaction with their doctors and the care they received. Although women were slightly more satisfied than men, other patient characteristics such as level of education, income, employment status or previous chiropractic care did not influence response means.
The Chiropractic Outcome Study: Pain, Functional Ability and Satisfaction With Care J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1997 (May); 20 (4): 235–240
Based on these results, it seems that patients suffering from back and/or neck complaints experience chiropractic care as an effective means of resolving or ameliorating pain and functional impairments, thus reinforcing previous res ults showing the benefits of chiropractic treatment for back and neck pain.
Patient Satisfaction With the Chiropractic Clinical Encounter: Report From a Practice-based Research Program Journal of the Neuromusculoskeletal System 2001: 9 (4): 109–117
The majority of patients were highly satisfied with their care; 85.0% reported that their chiropractor always listened carefully; 85.3% that the DC explained things understandably; 88.2% that the DC showed respect for what they had to say; and 75.6% that he/she involved them in decisions as much as they wanted. The median proportion of patients, per DC, with a chief complaint who said their doctor always spent enough time with them was 82% (IQR: 19%) and 82.3% reported that their chiropractors never recommended more visits than necessary.
Patient Satisfaction With Chiropractic Physicians in an Independent Physicians' Association J Manipulative Physiol Ther 2001 (Nov); 24 (9): 556–559
Various aspects of chiropractic care were given a rating of "excellent" by the following percentage of respondents: Length of time to get an appointment (84.9%); convenience of the office (57.7%); access to the office by telephone (77.3%); length of wait at the office (75.7%); time spent with the provider (74.3%); explanation of what was done during the visit (72.8%); technical skills of the chiropractor (83.3%); and the personal manner of the chiropractor (92.4%). The visit overall was rated as excellent by 83.3% of responders, and 95.5% stated they would definitely recommend the provider to others.
Patients were more satisfied with chiropractic than other treatments for low back pain. British Medical Journal, 1999; 319:57 (3 July)
Patient satisfaction is increasingly recognised as an important outcome in trials. Whatever interpretation Ernst and Assendelft place on changes in the Oswestry score, they did not mention in their letter 1 that significantly more of those patients in our trial who were treated by chiropractic expressed satisfaction with their outcome at three years than those treated in hospital2 84.7% (127/150) v 65.5% (76/116) for those referred by chiropractors (P<0.0001) and 79.2% (103/130) v 60.2% (71/118) for those recruited from hospitals (P=0.001). This aspect was assessed three years after entry to the trial.
The Outcomes and Costs of Care for Acute Low Back Pain Among Patients Seen by Primary Care Practitioners, Chiropractors, and Orthopedic Surgeons N Engl J Med 1995 (Oct 5); 333 (14): 913–917
The status at six months was ascertained for 1555 of the 1633 patients enrolled in the study (95 percent). The times to functional recovery, return to work, and complete recovery from low back pain were similar among patients seen by all six groups of practitioners, but there were marked differences in the use of health care services. The mean total estimated outpatient charges were highest for the patients seen by orthopedic surgeons and chiropractors and were lowest for the patients seen by HMO and primary care providers. Satisfaction was greatest among the patients who went to the chiropractors.
Patient Evaluations of Low Back Pain Care From Family Physicians and Chiropractors West J Med 1989 (Mar); 150 (3): 351–355
Patients of chiropractors were three times as likely as patients of family physicians to report that they were very satisfied with the care they received for low back pain (66% versus 22%, respectively). Compared with patients of family physicians, patients of chiropractors were much more likely to have been satisfied with the amount of information they were given, to have perceived that their provider was concerned about them, and to have felt that their provider was comfortable and confident dealing with their problem.
Comparing the Satisfaction of Low Back Pain Patients Randomized to Receive Medical or Chiropractic Care: Results From the UCLA Low-back Pain Study Am J Public Health 2002 (Oct); 92 (10): 1628–1633
Communication of advice and information to patients with low back pain increases their satisfaction with providers and accounts for much of the difference between chiropractic and medical patients' satisfaction.
