Health-related Quality of Life Improvements in Adult Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain under Low-force Chiropractic Care: A Practice-based Study.

Background: Chronic Low Back Pain (cLBP) costs the United States over $100 billion annually. Primary Study Objective: This study reports pain intensity, general health and functional disability outcomes after 4-weeks of chiropractic care for cLBP patients. Methods/Design: A prospective case series, nonrandomized, non-controlled, practice-based study. Setting: 22 private chiropractic practices in the US. Subjects: 131 adult cLBP patients, 68 males (53.5%), mean age of 46.75 with chief complaints of cLBP (LBP ≥ 3 months) with mean duration of 11 years. Intervention: Each patient received 6 office visits over a 4-week period with doctors following Directional Non-Force Technique (DNFT) chiropractic protocols. Outcome Measures: The Dartmouth COOP charts (general health), Modified Oswestry Disability Questionnaire (MODQ) (functional disability), and an 11-point Pain Intensity Numerical Rating Scale (PI-NRS) for pain. Results: The pre and post-care mean scores of COOP were 13.16 (95% CI 9.33 - 16.99, P < 0.01) and 10.52 (CI 6.98 - 14.06, P < 0.01) respectively, 20.06% improvement. The MODQ were 17.72 (CI 11.02 - 24.42, P < 0.01) and 8.92 (CI 2.30 - 15.54, P < 0.01), 49.66% improvement in functional disability. The PI-NRS was 18.18 (CI 12.26 - 24.10, P < 0.01) and 10.60 (CI 3.80 - 6.80, P < 0.01), improving 41.69%. Conclusions: Improvements appeared to be significant on general health, functional disability, and pain intensity after an intervention of 4-weeks with 6 visits of DNFT chiropractic care. These findings merit a randomized control trial of chiropractic versus a control group or other treatment modalities in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]