The aim of this project is to determine whether chiropractic practitioners assess the patient’s neck for the traditionally defined components of the chiropractic vertebral subluxation.
A descriptive study will be undertaken in two parts. The first will involve a return-mail survey to be completed by chiropractic practitioners practicing in NSW and heads of chiropractic teaching institutions through out the world. The second part will involve the observation of practice procedures used by a cohort of consenting chiropractic practitioners in NSW.
A descriptive statistical analysis of the two sets of data will be performed. Differences between sub-groups of the data such as Australian and overseas trained persons will be examined by using the Chi-square test since this test requires no assumption about the population distribution and can be used for two or more sample sets. An analysis of statistical difference (Student T-test) will be performed on the self-report survey data and the observational data, in order to determine the level of agreement between the two samples of data.
This project will provide information about practice procedures used by chiropractors to determine the presence of the chiropractic vertebral subluxation in the neck. This information is necessary to determine the nature of contemporary chiropractic practice and is a first step in determining if chiropractors continue to identify and treat the chiropractic vertebral subluxations as traditionally defined by the chiropractic profession.
Grant Value: $1,800
Chief Investigator: Dr Ray Hayek – Macquarie University
Status: Complete
Publications:
- Chiropractic Secrets, S Gardner & JS Mosby, Philadelphia, USA, pp. 91-106.
Henderson, CNR & Hayek, R 2000, The neurologic component of the subluxation.