Parents Very Satisfied with Chiropractic for Children

A dissertation by Genevieve M. Keating and released by Fielding Graduate University in 2021 has the title "Do Children in Australia Benefit from Chiropractic Care?" This paper is an exhaustive look over a ten year period at the responses of parents whose children underwent chiropractic care in Australia. The author of this paper looked at data from the Review of Chiropractic Spinal Care for Children that was conducted in 2019 by Safer Care Victoria on children under 12 years of age.

In explaining the purpose for this paper and study, the author noted, "Infant and early childhood development have significant impacts on long term health and wellbeing. This early development sets the scene for life-long health, wellbeing, and competence, and early preventative intervention in the health and educational fields can be very valuable." She goes on to explain that "Chiropractors work with infants and children who have postural and musculoskeletal issues. It is important to address these issues early because they may impact breastfeeding, settling, sleeping, and development."

The goal of this study was to answer a number of general questions concerning chiropractic care for children. The questions included, "Why do parents seek chiropractic care for their children?", "Who else do they consult for these concerns?", and "How satisfied were parents (or their children) with the care they received?". The data was from the results obtained from 22,043 parents whose children under 12 had received chiropractic care in the last ten years.

The results of the study showed that 48% of those parents who sought chiropractic for their children did so for musculoskeletal complains. In most of those instances, the parents were concerned about their child's development. Of these children, 77.5% of them were also under care of another health professional for the same issue.

Almost universally, 99.16% of the parents felt well-informed and involved in their decision about chiropractic care for their child. However, being well-informed at such a high rate was not the study's most surprising statistic. The study also showed that 98.4% of the parents stated that their child showed improvement from their chiropractic care, and 99.6% of parents said chiropractic care benefited their child. These high levels of satisfaction and report of benefit is unprecedented anywhere else in healthcare.