Objective
To report on a 26-year-old female patient presenting with uncomplicated chronic low
back pain who received chiropractic maintenance care using 2 quality of life outcome
assessment instruments.
Outcome measures
Short-form (SF-36) subscales, Quality of Well-Being Scale, Visual Analog Scale, and
number of tender vetebral spinous processes.
Results
After 9 months of care the SF-36 subscale scores showed improvement. The SF-36, although
low before care, approached normal on 3 subscales and exceeded normal population values
on 5 subscales after 9 months. The SF-36 physical and mental composite scores improved
from mean baseline scores of 23.4 and 25.3 to 43.7 and 62.8, respectively, after 9
months of care. The Quality of Well-Being Scale scores improved from a mean pre-intervention
score of 1.1 to a post-intervention score of 8.2. The Visual Analog Scale scores improved
from a mean pre-intervention score of 8 to a post-intervention score of 1.5. The mean
number of chiropractic vertebral subluxations, detected via palpation of spinous process
tenderness, went from a pre-care mean of 6.5 to a post-care mean of 4.
Conclusion
The patient appeared to experience improvement in quality of life while showing signs
suggestive of improved spinal function. The relationship between indicators of vertebral
subluxation and quality of life deserves further investigation using a research design
that allows for exploration of possible causal relationships.
Key indexing terms
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Article info
Publication history
Received:
October 21,
2003
Footnotes
Sources of support: None.
Identification
Copyright
© 2005 National University of Health Sciences. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
