Biomaterial Database

Patient evaluations of low back pain care from family physicians and chiropractors. 1989

D C Cherkin, and F A MacCornack

We compare health maintenance organization enrollees' evaluations of the care they received from family physicians and chiropractors for low back pain. Patients of chiropractors were three times as likely as patients of family physicians to report that they were very satisfied with the care they received for low back pain (66% versus 22%, respectively). Compared with patients of family physicians, patients of chiropractors were much more likely to have been satisfied with the amount of information they were given, to have perceived that their provider was concerned about them, and to have felt that their provider was comfortable and confident dealing with their problem. Although the more positive evaluations of chiropractors may be related to differences in the patient populations served by the two providers or to benefits of spinal manipulation, it is suggested that a potentially more potent force--the therapeutic effect of the patient and provider interaction itself--may explain the observed differences.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D008875	Middle Aged	An adult aged 45 - 64 years.	Middle Age
D010817	Physician-Patient Relations	The interactions between physician and patient.	Doctor-Patient Relations,Doctor Patient Relations,Physician Patient Relations,Physician Patient Relationship,Doctor Patient Relation,Doctor-Patient Relation,Physician Patient Relation,Physician Patient Relationships,Physician-Patient Relation,Relation, Doctor Patient,Relation, Doctor-Patient,Relation, Physician Patient,Relation, Physician-Patient,Relations, Doctor Patient,Relations, Doctor-Patient,Relations, Physician Patient,Relations, Physician-Patient,Relationship, Physician Patient,Relationships, Physician Patient
D010821	Physicians, Family	Those physicians who have completed the education requirements specified by the American Academy of Family Physicians.	Family Physician,Family Physicians,Physician, Family
D002684	Chiropractic	An occupational discipline founded by D.D. Palmer in the 1890's based on the relationship of the spine to health and disease.
D003258	Consumer Behavior	Behavior associated with the procurement of goods, services, or experiences.	Consumer Preference,Consumer Satisfaction,Behavior, Consumer,Behaviors, Consumer,Consumer Behaviors,Consumer Preferences,Preference, Consumer,Preferences, Consumer,Satisfaction, Consumer
D005260	Female		Females
D006279	Health Maintenance Organizations	Organized systems for providing comprehensive prepaid health care that have five basic attributes: (1) provide care in a defined geographic area; (2) provide or ensure delivery of an agreed-upon set of basic and supplemental health maintenance and treatment services; (3) provide care to a voluntarily enrolled group of persons; (4) require their enrollees to use the services of designated providers; and (5) receive reimbursement through a predetermined, fixed, periodic prepayment made by the enrollee without regard to the degree of services provided. (From Facts on File Dictionary of Health Care Management, 1988)	Group Health Organizations, Prepaid,HMO,Prepaid Group Health Organizations,Health Maintenance Organization,Organizations, Health Maintenance,Organization, Health Maintenance
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000293	Adolescent	A person 13 to 18 years of age.	Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths