The chiropractic services market: a literature review.
This article surveys the economic literature on chiropractors. Chiropractors provide a substantial amount of care for those with various neuro-musculo-skeletal disorders and represent the fastest growing segment of the professional health services market. Yet the study of the profession has been neglected in the health services research literature. The goals of this article are to take stock of the existing literature and data sources. After providing background information, including recent developments in antitrust, I merge various data sources to assess the growth of expenditures for chiropractic care and the proportion of the population using this care. Other data sources and features are also described. I conclude with a discussion of the significance of further research on the profession to existing policy efforts to contain costs and improve health care delivery.
School of Business Administration, Oakland University, Rochester, MI.
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D002684:Chiropractic / Q000191:economics*; D005381:Financing, Organized / Q000639:trends; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D006302:Health Services Research; D014481:United States; D014600:Utilization Review