Seminars in Integrative Medicine最新文献

For the past 100 years, chiropractic leaders in North America vigorously debated (1) whether the profession’s scope of practice should be restricted to the examination and adjustment of the spine or expanded to include a broad range of procedures from physical and general medicine and (2) whether the spinal adjustment is or is not an effective treatment for many early-stage visceral conditions. While leaders debated, the opinions of practicing chiropractors were never systematically surveyed. This probability survey seeks to ascertain the opinions of practicing chiropractors on the issues and questions that arise from the historic conflict between broad scope advocates and focused scope proponents. This is a systematic random attitudinal survey of 1,102 practicing chiropractors selected from a mailing list of 60,409 names from Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The 687 respondents (63.3% response rate) produced four major findings: (1) numerous survey items repeatedly show that >75% of the survey subjects favor a broad scope of clinical services, (2) several items show that >75% of the respondents empirically find that the adjustment of the vertebral subluxation complex usually elicits improvements in select visceral ailments, (3) majorities of self-labeled broad scope, middle scope, and focused scope chiropractors agree on all but one issue, and that is (4) respondents divide rather evenly on the question of limited prescription rights for the profession. Practicing chiropractors in this survey form a consensus on many scope of practice and philosophical issues, in contrast to the history of conflict among leaders in the profession.

Objective

This report presents selected estimates of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use among U.S. adults, using data from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Methods

Data for the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population were collected using computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI). This report is based on 31,044 interviews of adults age 18 years and over. Statistics shown in this report were age adjusted to the year 2000 U.S. standard population.

Results

Sixty-two percent of adults used some form of CAM therapy during the past 12 months when the definition of CAM therapy included prayer specifically for health reasons. When prayer specifically for health reasons was excluded from the definition, 36% of adults used some form of CAM therapy during the past 12 months. The 10 most commonly used CAM therapies during the past 12 months were use of prayer specifically for one’s own health (43.0%), prayer by others for one’s own health (24.4%), natural products (18.9%), deep breathing exercises (11.6%), participation in prayer group for one’s own health (9.6%), meditation (7.6%), chiropractic care (7.5%), yoga (5.1%), massage (5.0%), and diet-based therapies (3.5%). Use of CAM varies by sex, race, geographic region, health insurance status, use of cigarettes or alcohol, and hospitalization. CAM was most often used to treat back pain or back problems, head or chest colds, neck pain or neck problems, joint pain or stiffness, and anxiety or depression. Adults age 18 years or over who used CAM were more likely to do so because they believed that CAM combined with conventional medical treatments would help (54.9%) and/or they thought it would be interesting to try (50.1%). Most adults who have ever used CAM have used it within the past 12 months, although there is variation by CAM therapy.