Multinational survey of chiropractic patients: reasons for seeking care.

INTRODUCTION: This study explores the extent to which consumers seek wellness care when choosing chiropractors whose practice methods are known to include periodic evaluative and interventional methods to maintain wellness and prevent illness.

METHODS: Using an international convenience sample of Sacro-Occipital Technique (SOT) practitioners, 1316 consecutive patients attending 27 different chiropractic clinics in the USA, Europe and Australia completed a one-page survey on intake to assess reason for seeking care. A forced choice response was obtained characterizing the patient's reason for seeking chiropractic care.

RESULTS: More than 40% of chiropractic patient visits were initiated for the purposes of health enhancement and/or disease prevention.

CONCLUSION: Although prudence dictates great caution when generalizing from this study, if confirmed by subsequent research among other similar cohorts, the present results may lend support to continued arguments of consumer demand for a more comprehensive paradigm of chiropractic care, beyond routine musculoskeletal complaints, that conceptualizes the systemic, nonspecific effects of the chiropractic encounter in much broader terms.