Article

Musculoskeletal complaints, most notably low back pain (LBP), are prevalent among
veterans. Despite a focus on LBP management by chiropractors within the Veterans
Health Administration, limited published accounts detail clinical outcomes with
chiropractic management of LBP among veterans. This was a retrospective case
series of 171 veterans with a chief complaint of LBP who were managed with
chiropractic care. Descriptive statistics and paired t-tests were used, with the
Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) and the Back Bournemouth Questionnaire (BBQ) serving
as the outcome measures. A minimum clinically important difference (MCID) was set
as 30% improvement from baseline for both measures. The mean number of treatments
was 8.7. For the NRS, the mean raw score improvement was 2.2 points, representing
37.4% change from baseline; 103 (60.2%) patients met or exceeded the MCID. For
the BBQ, the mean raw score improvement was 13.6 points, representing 34.6%
change from baseline; 92 patients (53.8%) met or exceeded the MCID. For this
sample of veterans with LBP, the mean percentages of clinical improvement were
statistically significant and clinically meaningful for both the NRS and BBQ.

Langue : ANGLAIS