title: Retrospective case series of clinical outcomes associated with chiropractic management for veterans with low back pain.
abstract: Musculoskeletal complaints, most notably low back pain (LBP), are prevalent among veterans. Despite a focus on LBP management by chiropractors within the Veterans Health Administration, limited published accounts detail clinical outcomes with chiropractic management of LBP among veterans. This was a retrospective case series of 171 veterans with a chief complaint of LBP who were managed with chiropractic care. Descriptive statistics and paired t-tests were used, with the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) and the Back Bournemouth Questionnaire (BBQ) serving as the outcome measures. A minimum clinically important difference (MCID) was set as 30% improvement from baseline for both measures. The mean number of treatments was 8.7. For the NRS, the mean raw score improvement was 2.2 points, representing 37.4% change from baseline; 103 (60.2%) patients met or exceeded the MCID. For the BBQ, the mean raw score improvement was 13.6 points, representing 34.6% change from baseline; 92 patients (53.8%) met or exceeded the MCID. For this sample of veterans with LBP, the mean percentages of clinical improvement were statistically significant and clinically meaningful for both the NRS and BBQ.
authors: Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Western New York Healthcare System, Buffalo VA Medical Center, 3495 Bailey Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14215, USA. andrew.dunn@va.gov
authors: Andrew S
authors: AS
authors: Dunn
authors: Bart N
authors: BN
authors: Green
authors: Lance R
authors: LR
authors: Formolo
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Chicoine
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D026882:Manipulation, Chiropractic; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States; D014493:United States Department of Veterans Affairs