According to a new Gallup report released Sept. 8 2015, an estimated 33.6 million U.S adults (14 percent) used chiropractic care within the last 12 months. Studies from other sources, including the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), have measured yearly chiropractic use at about 20.6 million U.S. adults (8 percent).
The report, officially named, the “Gallup-Palmer College of Chiropractic Inaugural Report: Americans’ Perceptions of Chiropractic,” also indicates that more than half of U.S. adults view doctors of chiropractic positively and agree they are effective at treating neck and back pain. However, nearly half of U.S. adults don’t know whether their insurance covers chiropractic care.
Palmer College of Chiropractic commissioned Gallup to conduct this first-ever nationally representative annual survey measuring perceptions of, and experiences with, chiropractic among U.S. adults. The survey will be repeated for at least two more years. Additional results of this inaugural survey include:
Key Highlights:
- Nearly 70 percent of adult Americans believe chiropractors are effective at treating neck and back pain.
- The majority (57 percent) of adults are likely to see a chiropractor for neck or back pain.
- More than 1/2 of all U.S. adults have visited a chiropractor, and more than 1/4 of them would choose chiropractic care first for back or neck pain.
- Nearly 1/2 of all U.S. adults don’t know if their insurance covers chiropractic care
“The goal of this groundbreaking three-year project is to get an objective understanding of why Americans choose or don’t choose to see a doctor of chiropractic,” said Palmer College of Chiropractic Chancellor Dennis Marchiori, D.C., Ph.D. “For years, we’ve heard from other sources that about 8 percent of Americans seek chiropractic care each year. Gallup found that number to be 14 percent. That’s great news, but the number is still too low. This project will help the profession learn what barriers exist and then take steps to remove them.’
Highlights of the study results are online from Gallup. The full Gallup-Palmer report is also available online.
A scientific article titled “Public Perceptions of Doctors of Chiropractic: Results of a National Survey and Examination of Variation According to Respondents’ Likelihood to Use Chiropractic, Experience With Chiropractic, and Chiropractic Supply in Local Health Care Markets,” based on this research, also was published today online by theJournal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. Additional resources about the Gallup-Palmer project are available at www.palmer.edu/gallup-report.
Results are based on a Gallup Panel study of 5,442 U.S. adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Feb. 16 to May 6, 2015, via the Web and by mail. The maximum margin of sampling error for this study is +-2 percentage points, with a 95 percent confidence level.
Source: Palmer College
