We've treated many work accident patients here at Laurel Regional Chiropractic, and quite often the patients received inappropriate care from either the hospital, medical doctor, or the physical therapy clinic. Here is a new study that concludes chiropractic is better than physical therapy and medical doctor for work-related low back pain.
OBJECTIVES: To compare occurrence of repeated disability episodes across types of health care providers who treat claimants with new episodes of work-related low back pain (LBP).
METHOD: A total of 894 cases followed 1 year using workers' compensation claims data. Provider types were defined for the initial episode of disability and subsequent episode of health maintenance care.
RESULTS: Controlling for demographics and severity, the hazard ratio [HR] of disability recurrence for patients of physical therapists (HR = 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.0 to 3.9) or physicians (HR = 1.6; 95% CI = 0.9 to 6.2) was higher than that of chiropractor (referent, HR = 1.0), which was similar to that of the patients non-treated after return to work (HR = 1.2; 95% CI = 0.4 to 3.8).
CONCLUSIONS: In work-related nonspecific LBP, the use of health maintenance care provided by physical therapist or physician services was associated with a higher disability recurrence than in chiropractic services or no treatment.
Statistically, this means you are twice as likely to end up disabled if you got your care from a physical therapist, rather than from a chiropractor. You’re also 60% more likely to be disabled if you choose a medical doctor to manage your care.
Reference: Cifuentes M, Willetts J, Wasiak R. Health Maintenance Care in Work-Related Low Back Pain and Its Association With Disability Recurrence. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2011 (Mar 14).
Dr. David P. Chen
Chiropractor in Laurel, MD 20708
No comments:
Post a Comment