From 2004 to 2015 increase in annual number of patients seen in VA chiropractic clinics
TUESDAY, July 5, 2016 (HealthDay News) — In the past decade there has been a substantial increase in the use of chiropractic services among the Veterans Affairs’ (VA) service, according to a study published in the June issue of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics.
Anthony J. Lisi, D.C., and Cynthia A. Brandt, M.D., M.P.H., from the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the VA administrative data sample from the first record of chiropractic services in VA. Data were collected from the VA’s Corporate Data Warehouse.
The researchers found that there was an increase of 821.7 percent in the annual number of patients seen in VA chiropractic clinics and an increase of 693.9 percent in the annual number of chiropractic visits from Oct. 1, 2004, through Sept. 30, 2015. VA chiropractic patients were generally male, aged 45 to 64 years, had low back and/or neck conditions, and received chiropractic spinal manipulation and evaluation and management services. There was a 9.4 percent annual increase in the total number of VA chiropractic clinics, and a 21.3 percent annual increase in the number of chiropractic employees. Starting in 2000, VA also purchased care from private sector chiropractors at a cost of $11,155,654 annually.
“Use of chiropractic services and the chiropractic workforce in VA have grown substantially over more than a decade since their introduction,” the authors write.
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