A systematic review comparing the costs of chiropractic care to other interventions for spine pain in the United States

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Published online 2015 Oct 19. doi: 10.1186/s12913-015-1140-5

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Table 4

Comparison of health care costs in worker’s compensation plans

			Chiropractic care		Comparator group(s)	Comparator		Lowest	Difference^d
First author	Year	Health care costs included	n	Costs		n	Costs
Butler [39]	2010	Office visits, PT, imaging, medications	54^a	$1,296	1. MD care, 2 MD care + chiropractic care +/− PT care, 3. MD care + PT care, 4. Other	930^a	$4,925	Chiropractic	−74 %
Cifuentes [37]	2011	Not specified	159^b	$415	1. PT maintenance care^c, 2. MD maintenance care, 3. PT and MD maintenance care, 4. Other maintenance care, 5. No maintenance care	735^b	$566	Chiropractic	−27 %
Gilkey [35]	2008	Not specified	76	$868	MD care	2,380	$264	Comparator	229 %
Jarvis [38]	1997	All health care costs associated with claim	1,007	$596	MD care	2,279	$658	Chiropractic	−9 %
Johnson [34]	1999	Office visits, PT, imaging, other diagnostic testing, medications, hospital visits	173	$1,044	MD care	671	$1,075	Chiropractic	−3 %
Phelan [36]	2004	Office visits to DC/MD/PT, medications, hospital inpatient, hospital outpatient, supplies	181	$685	1. MD care, 2. MD care + chiropractic care, 3. No MD care or chiropractic care	10,930	$7,904	Chiropractic	−91 %

^adata reported in secondary report [47]

^bcosts were weekly average health care costs during both disability period and maintenance period

^cmaintenance care defined as receiving any type of health care after the initial period of disability has ended

^dreported as (−(comparator costs - chiropractic care costs)/comparator costs) × 100 %

DC doctor of chiropractic, MD medical doctor, PT physical therapist