A recent study in the medical journal Spine found a strong association between chiropractic care and the avoidance of lumbar spine surgery. The American Chiropractic Association is encouraged by this and other recent research supporting chiropractic’s conservative, less costly approach to low-back pain.
Key findings of the Spine study show that:
- Patients under age 35, women, Hispanics and patients whose first provider was a chiropractic physician had reduced odds of lumbar spine surgery
- Approximately 43 percent of patients who saw a surgeon first had surgery
- Only 1.5 percent of those who saw a chiropractic physician first ended up having surgery
Two additional studies reinforce ACA’s longstanding position that health care providers should start with conservative approaches to treatment, such as the services provided by doctors of chiropractic, before guiding their patients to less conservative alternatives. Such an approach benefits patients and cuts health care spending—especially for a condition as common as low-back pain.
A recent study in Medical Care found that adjusted annual medical costs among complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) users was $424 lower for spine-related costs, and $796 lower for total health care cost than among non-CAM users. Furthermore, CAM treatments were cost neutral to health care systems, meaning that CAM users did not add to the overall medical spending in a nationally representative sample of patients with neck and back problems.
Published in The Lancet, “The Global Burden of Disease 2010,” authored by an international group of experts assessing the world’s biggest health challenges, underscores the need for better solutions to back pain and other musculoskeletal conditions. The massive survey indicates that while people may be living longer they are doing so more frequently with disability. The study identifies musculoskeletal conditions as the second leading cause of disability, and cites low-back pain as one of the major contributors to disability worldwide. GBD authors noted that creating effective and affordable strategies to deal with the rising burden of non-fatal health outcomes should be an urgent priority for health care providers around the world.
“Politicians and insurance companies are constantly striving to lower skyrocketing health care costs. Time and time again, studies have shown that chiropractic reduces health care costs, and risks, and returns patients to work (and play) more quickly than surgery. This fact needs to be a key point in the health care discussion,” says Dr. Andrew Cohen of ProActive Chiropractic in San Francisco. “This is especially true when we examine how much Americans spend on lower back pain each year. Surgery is certainly warranted in severe cases, but too many low back issues are being handled surgically when chiropractic would have saved time, money, and all the ancillary troubles of surgery- anesthesia, painful recovery, and hospital visits!”
If you have low-back pain, call today for a free consultation to find out if you could be helped without surgery.