Do chiropractors identify with complementary and alternative medicine? Results of a survey.
OBJECTIVE
Chiropractic in the United States exhibits characteristics of both mainstream health care and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). The purpose of this project was to investigate the opinions of a sample of chiropractic faculty and practitioners on the appropriate classification of their profession, in terms of CAM versus mainstream.


METHODS
This was a descriptive study conducted by means of an electronically administered survey to a sample of chiropractic college faculty and practicing chiropractors.


METHODS
The faculty sample consisted of all faculty members holding Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degrees at 4 chiropractic colleges, 2 in the Midwest and 2 in southern California. The practitioner sample consisted of all 108 participants, located in 32 states in the United States, in a chiropractic practice-based research network.


METHODS
The survey instrument was based on one used with permission from its authors, who had developed and used it to gather information about respondents' concepts and definitions of health and disease, in order to compare the broad categories of practitioners-mainstream medicine, integrated medicine (IM), and CAM.


RESULTS
Of 191 D.C. faculty invited to participate, 71 (37%) completed the survey. Of the 108 practicing D.C.s invited to participate, 61 (57%) completed the survey. Of the total sample of 132, 69% did not agree that chiropractic should be categorized as CAM. Twenty-seven percent (27%) of 132 thought that chiropractors should be classified as IM; 20% of practitioners and 6% of faculty considered chiropractic mainstream medicine.


CONCLUSIONS
The majority (69%) of the chiropractors in this sample rejected being characterized as CAM practitioners, showing some preference for the term IM (27%).
Redwood
Daniel
D
Cleveland Chiropractic College-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO 64131, USA. dan.redwood@cleveland.edu
Hawk
Cheryl
C
Cambron
Jerrilyn
J
Vinjamury
Sivarama Prasad
SP
Bedard
Jennifer
J
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002684:Chiropractic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007587:Job Description; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States