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The United States Chiropractic Workforce: An alternative or complement to primary care?
Matthew A Davis1, Todd A Mackenzie, Ian D Coulter
1Center for Health Policy Research, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, 35 Centerra Parkway, Lebanon, NH, 03766, USA. matthew.a.davis@dartmouth.edu.
Chiropractic & Manual Therapies
|November 23, 2012
Summary
Chiropractors are more likely to practice where primary care physicians are already abundant. This suggests chiropractors may complement, rather than replace, primary care services in underserved areas.
Area of Science:
- Health Services Research
- Healthcare Workforce Distribution
- Primary Care Access
Background:
- A shortage of primary care physicians (PCPs) in the United States necessitates exploring alternative healthcare providers.
- Chiropractors may help meet primary care needs, particularly in areas with limited PCP resources.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the geographic distribution of the chiropractic workforce nationwide.
- To compare the distribution patterns of chiropractors with those of primary care physicians.
Main Methods:
- Utilized nationally representative data to calculate the per capita supply of chiropractors and PCPs.
- Employed 306 predefined Hospital Referral Regions for geographic analysis.
- Applied multiple variable Poisson regression to assess the impact of population characteristics on practitioner supply.
Main Results:
- Identified 74,623 chiropractors in the US, with a 10-fold variation in per capita supply across regions.
- Found a positive correlation between chiropractor supply and PCP supply (r=0.17, p<0.001).
- Chiropractors' practice locations appear more influenced by population characteristics than PCPs', indicating market responsiveness.
Conclusions:
- Chiropractors tend to practice in areas with a higher concentration of primary care physicians.
- Findings suggest chiropractors often serve complementary roles to primary care, rather than acting as an alternative access point.
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