Feasibility Using Amazon Mechanical Turk for Online Surveys of Attitudes and Perceptions of Chiropractic Health Care in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility and utility of using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for online surveys of US adults about their perceptions of chiropractors and to report differences between people who have positive versus negative attitudes toward chiropractic care. METHODS: A 74-item, unvalidated survey was developed through iterative review to assess attitudes of respondents to chiropractic, including a query stratifying respondents based on previous and future use of chiropractic (have used, would consider; have used, would not consider; have not used, would consider; have not used, would not consider). The electronic survey was delivered using Qualtrics; respondents were recruited using MTurk, a crowdsourcing website. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies and cross tabulations, were performed. RESULTS: A total of 1300 responses were obtained. Consistent with previous reports, 32.2% of the respondents reported having seen a chiropractor in the past. Chiropractic care was perceived as being effective for musculoskeletal complaints. Respondents who would not consider future chiropractic care shared a common set of beliefs related to training of chiropractors, scope of chiropractic practice, and safety and reputation of chiropractic. These respondents reported increased likelihood of chiropractor use with the recommendation of a primary care physician. CONCLUSION: Recruiting survey participants using MTurk is feasible, affordable, and quick and offers high utility to academic researchers. Using this resource, we ascertained preliminary data about attitudes and perceptions from individuals who would or would not consider chiropractic, stratified by their previous use.

The meaning of it all: evaluating knowledge of Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID) among chiropractic students.

INTRODUCTION: Patient-reported outcome measures are frequently used to monitor patient progress during chiropractic care, yet student interns utilizing such assessments are unfamiliar with what magnitude of change (MCID) is considered beneficial to the patient. OBJECTIVE: This work seeks to determine chiropractic intern knowledge of MCID. METHODS: A five-item survey was administered to 104 chiropractic student interns. RESULTS: Nearly one-third of the interns correctly defined the MCID acronym, and approximately one-third of the interns knew at least one MCID value for the outcome assessments in the EHR. Surprisingly, 20% of the interns reported knowledge of at least one MCID value, but answered incorrectly pertaining to the MCID acronym. CONCLUSION: Student interns value patient perception, but have limited knowledge of MCID values. Addressing this gap will improve their understanding of patient progress and inform their treatment decisions both in the outpatient clinic and in their practices following graduation.

INTRODUCTION: Les mesures de résultats rapportés par les patients sont fréquemment utilisées pour suivre les progrès du patient pendant les soins chiropratiques, mais les stagiaires qui utilisent ces évaluations ne sont pas familiers avec l'ampleur des changements (différence minimale cliniquement importante ­ DMCI) considérée comme bénéfique pour le patient. OBJECTIF: Cette étude vise à déterminer les connaissances, chez les stagiaires en chiropratique, de la DMCI. MÉTHODOLOGIE: Une enquête comportant cinq points a été menée chez 104 stagiaires en chiropratique. RÉSULTATS: Près d'un tiers des stagiaires ont correctement défini l'acronyme DMCI (MCID en anglais), et environ un tiers d'entre eux était au courant au moins d'une valeur de DMCI pour les évaluations de résultats dans le DSE. Étonnamment, 20 % des stagiaires ont indiqué connaître au moins une valeur de DMCI, mais n'ont pas su reconnaître l'acronyme DMCI. CONCLUSION: Les stagiaires accordent de l'importance à la perception des patients, mais ont une connaissance limitée des valeurs de DMCI. Combler cette lacune permettra d'améliorer leur compréhension des progrès des patients et d'informer leurs décisions de traitement tant en consultation externe que dans leurs pratiques après l'obtention du diplôme.