University Assignment: ESSC11004 Annotated Bibliography Chiropractic

This annotated bibliography examines three key studies related to chiropractic care. The first study, by Blum et al. (2018), explores patient motivations for seeking chiropractic care, highlighting the expectation of disease prevention and wellness enhancement. The second study, by Xue et al. (2018), investigates the use of chiropractic, acupuncture, and osteopathy in Australia, revealing that chiropractic is the most commonly used alternative therapy, primarily for back pain. The final study, by Nelson et al. (2005), proposes a model for the chiropractic profession to establish itself as a credible and integrated part of mainstream healthcare, emphasizing spinal care and ethical standards. The bibliography provides summaries of each study's aim, methodology, and key findings, offering insights into the current state and future directions of chiropractic practice.

Running head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Promoting Chiropractic as a Profession and a Method of Care and Wellness
Student’s name
University
Author’s note

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Multinational survey of chiropractic patients: reasons for seeking care (Blum et al. 2018)
The exploratory study investigates the extent to which patients are and wellness while
choosing chiropractors. The study presupposes periodic evaluative and interventional methods as
the practice methods to prevent illness and maintain wellness. Thereby, it seeks to associate the
practice methods as a criteria of choosing chiropractic for wellness and care. The study uses an
international convenience sample from Sacro-Occipital Technique (SOT) practitioners, involving
1316 patients seeking treatment from 27 chiropractic clinics across America, Europe and
Australia. The participants completed a one-page survey on the reasons for seeking chiropractic
care.
Data was collected from the anonymous, three-item survey questionnaire that included
five options, developed based on Greene & Kreuter model. The questionnaire asked the patients
their age, gender and motivation for seeking chiropractic care. Descriptive statistics were used to
summarize the demographic characteristics and distribution of the samples as well as patient
responses. The results of the study indicate that more than 40% patients who sought chiropractic
care were motivated to visit the clinics with a self-reported expectation of disease prevention
and/or wellness enhancement. Although assuming generalization from this limited sample is a
limitation of the study, it indicates the significance of incorporating a broader conceptualization
of health, which can promote the scope of chiropractic among patients.

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Acupuncture, chiropractic and osteopathy use in Australia: a national population survey (Xue
et al, 2018)
The research presents a comprehensive investigation on manipulative therapies used in
Australia, focusing on chiropractic, acupuncture and osteopathy, and seeks to identify the patient
motivation behind availing manipulative therapy. The investigation also encompasses the
specific therapies for specific illnesses, treatment outcomes and socio-demographic
characteristics of users.
The study conducted a cross-sectional population survey on the use of complementary
and alternative therapies. The survey involves 1067 adults from the six states and two territories
of Australia in 2015 as the representative samples. The survey was conducted online and the
sample was recruited by random digital dialling.
The results indicate that at least one in four adult Australian used either of the three
alternative therapy at least once in a 12 months period. The estimation indicates that more than
32.3 million consumers visited chiropractors, osteopaths and acupuncturists, which incurred a
total of A$1 .58 billion. However, the most common complaints to visit the practioners were
reported to be back pains and related problems. And over 90% of the consumers reported their
treatments to be somewhat to very satisfactory and helpful.
The results show that among the three major alternative therapies, the majority of the
consumers went for chiropractic treatment, mostly for their problems of back pain and related
unease. It indicates a promising scope for chiropractors in the country as the discipline shows the
opportunity of growth and popularity for treating spine and back-related illnesses.

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chiropractic as spine care: a model for the profession (Nelson et al, 2015)
The study aims to present a comprehensive model for the chiropractic profession to
establish cultural authority and increase market share of the people seeking chiropractic care.
The author notes that despite the long history of chiropractic practice, the discipline has failed to
establish itself as a credible, comprehensible and scientifically cohesive method of treatment and
care. This failure, according to the authors, has restricted the discipline to establish cultural
authority over other specific domains of healthcare.
The qualitative analysis indicates that the continuation of this failure will pose a threat to
the future viability of the chiropractic profession. To this end, it identifies three specific
characteristics of the practice to be the major impediments for creating a credible definition of
the practice, namely departures from accepted standards of professional ethics; the promotion of
chiropractors as primary care providers and reliance upon obsolete principles of chiropractic
philosophy. Contrary to these, the authors argue that the identity of a chiropractic professional
should be based on spinal care and that could establish chiropractic as an integrated part of
mainstream healthcare. Moreover, the implementation of accepted standards of professional
ethics, acceptance and promotion of evidence-based health care and introducing chiropractors as
portal-of-entry providers constitute the simple care-model as propounded by the authors, which
may be potential to establish chiropractic as a mainstream healthcare service.
The significance of the model is that it distinctly identifies the shortcomings of the
existing chiropractic practice and offers important guidelines that could be adopted and

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
implemented to enhance the scope of chiropractic as a profession and increase its credibility and
acceptability among consumers.
References
Blum, C., Globe, G., Terre, L., Mirtz, T. A., Greene, L., & Globe, D. (2018). Multinational
survey of chiropractic patients: reasons for seeking care. The Journal of the Canadian
Chiropractic Association, 52(3), 175.
Nelson, C. F., Lawrence, D. J., Triano, J. J., Bronfort, G., Perle, S. M., Metz, R. D., ... & LaBrot,
T. (2005). Chiropractic as spine care: a model for the profession. Chiropractic &
osteopathy, 13(1), 9.
Xue, C. C., Zhang, A. L., Lin, V., Myers, R., Polus, B., & Story, D. F. (2018). Acupuncture,
chiropractic and osteopathy use in Australia: a national population survey. BMC Public
Health, 8(1), 105.