Is Maintenance Care Right For You?
Author: Dr. Rick Parisien, Chiropractor
If you know someone who goes to the chiropractor regularly or if you’ve seen a chiropractor before, you may have heard of the term “maintenance care”. When you think of “maintenance” you likely think of bringing your vehicle in for an oil change or getting your tires rotated – that is not the type of maintenance we’re talking about here.
Unlike a vehicle, our bodies are biological structures that require consistency to reach a desired outcome. For this reason, chiropractors often recommend maintenance care to their patients over symptom guided care (only seeking treatment when in pain).
Maintenance care can be defined as regularly spaced visits over a longer period of time that include manual therapy, individual exercise programs and lifestyle advice.
Chiropractors across the world have been applying this practice for several decades now which warrants the question – is there any evidence to support this?
The answer is yes.
In 2018, a group of researchers out of Denmark performed a randomized controlled trial on exactly this. The goal of this study was to see the total number of days patients experienced bothersome low back pain over 52 weeks with either maintenance care or symptom guided care. The study included 328 chiropractic patients with persistent or recurrent low back pain. These patients were then randomly allocated to either maintenance care (regularly scheduled treatments) or symptom guided care (seek care when you are hurt) over the 52 weeks.
Fast forward 12 months…
The study demonstrated maintenance care to provide on average 12.8 fewer days with bothersome low back pain for individuals over the course of the year when compared to symptom guided care!
If you ask someone who deals with persistent or recurring low back pain if 12.8 days a year is relevant, they will most certainly will say yes.
Not only does going to the chiropractor regularly feel good, but it may cut down on your days taken off work due to back pain, hospital and doctor visits for your back pain, and unnecessary medication for your back pain. If you find yourself dealing with persistent or recurring low back pain, it may be worthwhile asking your chiropractor if maintenance care is right for you.
Reference:
Eklund A, Jensen I, Lohela-Karlsson M, et al. The Nordic Maintenance Care program: Effectiveness of chiropractic maintenance care versus symptom-guided treatment for recurrent and persistent low back pain-A pragmatic randomized controlled trial. PLoS One. 2018;13(9):e0203029. Published 2018 Sep 12. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0203029
