Chiropractic Care on the Rise

The number of patients who received chiropractic care between 1996 and 1999 increased significantly, according to recently released results from a Kaiser Permanente study. Chiropractic therapy was up from 8.5% in 1996 to 9.8% in 1999, said Dr. Nancy Gordon of Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research. However, when the study focused on people who had experienced severe back, neck, or shoulder pain, the rates of use of chiropractic and massage therapy increased even more, from 18.4% to 21.5% and 14.6% to 19.4%, respectively. The findings were released at the International Scientific Conference on Complementary Alternative and Integrative Medicine Research in San Francisco.