A study published this January looked at the differences in health related quality of life (HRQOL) in military members with low back pain (LBP) at three different military treatment facilities (1). They separated members into two different groups, those who received usual care for LBP and those who received usual care plus chiropractic care. The areas being measured were: physical function, pain interference, pain intensity, fatigue, sleep disturbance, social/role satisfaction, depression, and anxiety (1). After the trial, members of the study followed up at 6 weeks post treatment as well as 12 weeks post treatment.
The results from the study showed positive impacts of chiropractic care on all aspects that were measured (1). The most significant being pain interference and pain intensity. Although the improvements in the mental health focused measures were statistically significant from their baseline scores, the differences between the usual care group versus usual care plus chiropractic was too small to be significant (1). With that said, improvement is still improvement! Like many of the other of the single studies discussed, there are some limitations to this study. The main limitation for this study is sample size. Although roughly 700 participants were surveyed throughout, a larger scale is necessary to make conclusive statements about chiropractic care affecting all of the different measures looked at in this study. Another limitation of the results is being able to separate the increased quality of life measures as secondary to the decreased pain levels exhibited.
This is purely anecdotal, but one of the questions I ask all of my new patients at their initial follow up visit is if they noticed a difference in the way they slept, which was another point measured in the study above. A large number of patients respond in the affirmative, whether this is directly due to chiropractic or secondary to being in less pain, does not really matter in the grand scheme of things! If you sleep better, you will feel better, you are able to live a more full life and do the things you want To see for yourself if you or a loved one's quality of life can be improved under chiropractic care, call Dr. Kennedy today.
Sources
Hays, R. D., Shannon, Z. K., Long, C. R., Spritzer, K. L., Vining, R. D., Coulter, I., Pohlman, K. A., Walter, J., & Goertz, C. M. (2022). Health-related quality of life among United States service members with low back pain receiving usual care plus chiropractic care plus usual care vs usual care alone: Secondary outcomes of a pragmatic clinical trial. Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.), pnac009. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnac009
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