A retrospective cross sectional survey of extremity cases on record at the Durban University of Technology chiropractic day clinic (1995-2005)

Abstract

The increasing contribution of chiropractors in health care has generated greater interest in understanding the characteristics of chiropractic practice patterns and treatments (Mootz et al., 2005). However, despite the rapid growth and extensive use of chiropractic, good descriptive data on chiropractors and their patients remains limited (Coulter and Shekelle, 2005). Even fewer studies have been reported which deal specifically with patients attending chiropractic-teaching clinics (Nyiendo and Olsen, 1988).

According to Nyiendo and Haldeman (1986), there remains a paucity of empirical data regarding the type of patients seeking care at a chiropractic-teaching clinic and the types of treatments provided at these clinics. According to Till and Till (2000), South Africa is largely a developing country with scattered developed communities. Its requirements and opportunities as they relate to chiropractic may differ significantly from those in other developed countries. It was also estimated that in South Africa only a fraction of the country’s population have any notion of what chiropractic is, thus the largest challenge lies with educating the public about chiropractic (http://www.chiroweb.com, 2005).

The lack of attention given to the chiropractic management of extremity conditions has contributed to a perception that chiropractic is unable to manage extremity conditions proficiently (Hoskins et al., 2006). There is a noted lack of research on the management of extremity conditions within chiropractic (Hoskins et al., 2006); therefore the current study focused on all components of the extremity system.

Objectives: The purpose of this research is to conduct a descriptive study of extremity cases on record at the Durban University of Technology Chiropractic Day Clinic from 1995 to 2005 and the objectives are as follows:

•To determine the prevalence of extremity complaints over the past decade at the Durban University of Technology Chiropractic Day Clinic. •To identify the demographics of patients that visited the Durban University of Technology Chiropractic Day Clinic. •To identify the most common presenting region and complaints of the extremity system as well as the aetiology and associated signs and symptoms of these complaints at the Durban University of Technology Chiropractic Day Clinic. •To identify the nature of the interventions and methods most commonly used in the management of patients at the initial consult and where possible contra-indications to any treatment modality