Utilization and Safety of Chiropractic Care in Older Adults

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The candidate has the objective of obtaining further education and training in order to realize his goal of a career in CAM research. The acquired skills will be applied to three specific aims on the utilization and safety of chiropractic in older U.S adults. The analysis of large national samples of Medicare claims data will take place in a unique research environment that is internationally known for utilizing such data in health policy research. Specific Aim #1 will use a retrospective cohort design with descriptive analysis to examine geographic variations in chiropractic availability, utilization and cost for adults over 65. It is anticipated that these data will provide useful insights to inform health care policy decision making, as utilization studies from The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDI) have historically done in other fields. The other two aims will examine safety issues in older patients, using case-control designs. With growing utilization of chiropractic services by an expanding elderly population, safety issues are becoming increasingly important. Specific Aim #2 will evaluate the incidence of stroke and certain stroke subtypes following chiropractic spinal manipulation among adults over 65. This study will ascertain the risk of stroke temporally associated with chiropractic treatment, and compare the results with the risk of stroke following visits to other types of providers. Specific Aim #3 will evaluate the risk of selected injuries of the head, neck and trunk following chiropractic spinal manipulation in adults over 65, again compared to the risk following visits to other provider types. The analysis will also evaluate associations between injuries and pre-existing conditions that are considered contraindications to chiropractic spinal manipulation. At the end of this five-year project, which will include a rigorous formal training program at TDI as well as mentored research, the candidate's goal is to attain status as an independent research investigator, applying the skills obtained in the program to the evaluation of CAM therapies.