According to a new Gallup report released Sept. 8, 2015 an estimated 33.6 million U.S adults (14%) used chiropractic care within the last 12 months.
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:
- The majority (57%) of adults are likely to see a chiropractor for neck or back pain.
- More than half of all U.S. adults have visited a doctor of chiropractic, and more than one-fourth of Americans would choose chiropractic care first for back or neck pain.
- Nearly two-thirds of adult Americans believe chiropractors are effective at treating neck and back pain.
“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%. 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 also is 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 the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. Additional resources about the Gallup-Palmer project are available at online.
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.
