Chiropractic students' force-time parameters for chiropractic adjustments at the beginning and end of an academic...

To evaluate changes in chiropractic students' spinal manipulation force-time parameters from the beginning to end of an academic term and compare pre-post differences by students' level of self-reported training outside of required class time.

Students were recruited using campus-wide flyers and club announcements. Participants performed 12 mannequin adjustments and total peak force, impulse peak force, and time to peak force were measured using force sensing table technology. Changes in pre and post data were assessed with paired t-test and signed-rank tests. The rank-sum test was used to test the association between out of class practice time and changes in adjustment parameters. Alpha was set at p ≤ .001.

Twenty students agreed to participate and pre-post data were collected for 17 students. Average time to peak force decreased and impulse peak and total peak forces increased over the academic term. Statistically significant changes were observed for cervical adjustment time to peak (mean decrease of 38 ms, SD = 59 ms) and thoracic adjustment total peak force (mean increase of 86 N, SD 113 N). No statistically significant differences were observed between students based on practice time.

Using force sensing table technology in this doctor of chiropractic program, student changes in adjusting force-time parameters were documented. Future research, with a larger sample size, is needed to evaluate student characteristics associated with changes in student adjustment parameters.