FEATURE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CHIRO FIRST New study shows chiropractic helps workers get better sooner I BY MARI-LEN DE GUZMAN f a recent study is any indication, more injured work-ers could be returning to work earlier if they seek chiropractic care first for work-related back pain. According to a new study published in the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, workers who went to a chiropractor first for occupational back pain had a significantly shorter duration of compensation during the first five months, compared to those who sought a medical doctor first. In comparison, workers who sought a physiotherapist first for back pain experienced a longer duration of com-pensation than those who consulted a medical doctor first. The retrospective cohort study, led by Dr. Marc-André Blanchette, a chiropractor and PhD candidate at Univer-sity of Montreal’s School of Public Health, looked at data from Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) consisting of 5,511 workers who received compen-sation for back pain in 2005. Legislation on workers’ compensation varies by prov-ince, particularly on the first line of care for injured work-ers, says Blanchette. In Quebec, for example, medical doctors are the only option for injured workers for first line of care. If they want to see a chiropractor or a physi-otherapist, they would need a referral from the medical doctor in order to be covered by workers’ compensation benefits. “When people are injured, they need to seek care quite rapidly… which may prompt people to seek care in an emergency department or a walk-in clinic, so they might not see their preferred source of care,” Blanchette says. In some jurisdictions in Canada, injured workers can seek care from other health-care practitioners, including MARI-LEN DE GUZMAN is the editor of Canadian Chiropractor magazine. She has been a journalist for 20 years and has been editor of several business and professional publications. You may contact her at [email protected] 30 Canadian Chiropractor December 2016 Workers with occupational back pain have higher odds of returning to work sooner when they seek care from a chiropractor first. a chiropractor, a physiotherapist and nurse practitioner, without requiring a referral from the medical doctor. In Ontario, workers have always been able to seek first care from chiropractors and medical doctors. In 2004, how-ever, the WSIB expanded this policy to include physio-therapists and nurse practitioners as approved first line of care for workers’ compensation. Blanchette and his colleagues looked at data from the WSIB after the new policy was implemented. They found that very few workers sought the care of nurse practition-ers for back pain, so the data was not sufficient to include this group of practitioners in the study. The study com-pared physiotherapist, medical doctor and chiropractor – with the medical doctor as the reference category, Blan-chette explains. “We created a categorical variable and in order to do a comparison, we have to select a reference category. We did not directly compare chiropractor to physiotherapist, we compared chiropractors to physicians and physiothera-pists to physicians,” Blanchette says. www.canadianchiropractor.ca Photo: Fotolia
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor December 2016: Page 30
