Objectives: To characterise the chiropractic care of pregnant patients in a practice-based research network (PBRN).
Main Outcome Measures: Patient demographics (i.e., age, gender, level of education) and weeks of gestation, presenting complaints based on hierarchical designation of primary (10), secondary (20), and tertiary (30) complaints, perceived effectiveness of care and the specific effects of care.
Results: One hundred and twenty six pregnant patients participated in our PBRN survey. Their average age was 30.56 years and presented for chiropractic care at an average gestational age of 29.42 weeks. Approximately 25% of the patients indicated presenting for “wellness care.” A total of 241 complaints were documented by the patient population and designated as 10 (N=118), 20 (N=91) and 30 (N=32). A majority of the specific complaints were musculoskeletal in nature with low back pain specific to the lumbar spine as the most common site. A majority of the patients reported a high perceived effectiveness in 98% of patients with 10 complaints, 97% of patients with 20 complaints and 100% of patients with 30 complaints. Response to specific effects of the chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy were categorized to 3 main domains as “decreased pain”, “improved function and “other” due to heterogeneity of indicated responses.
Conclusions: Pregnant patients present for chiropractic care for musculoskeletal complaints in addition to wellness care with high-perceived effectiveness. We support further research to examine the safety and effectiveness of this popular non-allopathic approach to women’s health.
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