A two-year follow-up: Twitter activity regarding misinformation about spinal manipulation, chiropractic care and boosting immunity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) is offered by many health professions, most often by chiropractors. While SMT can be effective for some musculoskeletal disorders, there is no evidence that SMT improves human immunity in a clinically meaningful way. Despite this, we showed previously that Twitter misinformation about chiropractic/SMT  improving immunity increased sharply at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we perform a two-year follow-up. METHODS: We previously employed specialized software (i.e. Talkwalker) to search the entirety of Twitter activity in the  months before and after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared (March 11, 2020). In this paper, we conducted follow-up searches over two successive 12 month periods using terms related to SMT, immunity and chiropractic. The resulting tweets were then coded into those promoting/refuting a relation between SMT and immunity (tone) and messaging about chiropractic/interventions (content). Further analyses were performed to subcategorize tweet content, tally likes, retweets and followers, and evaluate refuting tweets and the country of origin. Finally, we created a chronology of Twitter activity superimposed with dates of promoting or refuting activities undertaken by chiropractic organizations. RESULTS: Over the 27 month study period, Twitter activity peaked on March 31, 2020 then declined continuously. As in our first paper, our follow-up data showed that (1) the ratio of refuting/promoting tweets remained constant and (2) tweets that refuted a relationship between SMT and immunity were substantially more liked, retweeted and followed than those promoting. We also observed that promoting tweets suggesting that SMT improves immunity decreased more rapidly. Overwhelmingly, promoting tweets originated in the USA while refuting tweets originated in Canada, Europe and Australia. The timing of the decline in peak Twitter activity, together with a parallel decline in tweets claiming that SMT improves immunity, was coincident with initiatives by chiropractic organizations and regulators targeting misinformation. CONCLUSION: Overwhelmingly, Twitter activity during the COVID-19 pandemic focussed on refuting a relation between chiropractic/SMT and immunity. A decline in Twitter activity promoting a relation between SMT and immunity was observed to coincide with initiatives from chiropractic organizations and regulators to refute these claims. The majority of misinformation about this topic is generated in the United States.

Predicting who responds to spinal manipulative therapy using a short-time frame methodology: Results from a 238-participant study.

BACKGROUND: Spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) is among the nonpharmacologic interventions that has been recommended in clinical guidelines for patients with low back pain, however, some patients appear to benefit substantially more from SMT than others. Several investigations have examined potential factors to modify patients' responses prior to SMT application. The objective of this study was to determine if the baseline prediction of SMT responders can be improved through the use of a restricted, non-pragmatic methodology, established variables of responder status, and newly developed physical measures observed to change with SMT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of a prior study that provided two applications of standardized SMT over a period of 1 week. After initial exploratory analysis, principal component analysis and optimal scaling analysis were used to reduce multicollinearity among predictors. A multiple logistic regression model was built using a forward Wald procedure to explore those baseline variables that could predict response status at 1-week reassessment. RESULTS: Two hundred and thirty-eight participants completed the 1-week reassessment (age 40.0± 11.8 years; 59.7% female). Response to treatment was predicted by a model containing the following 8 variables: height, gender, neck or upper back pain, pain frequency in the past 6 months, the STarT Back Tool, patients' expectations about medication and strengthening exercises, and extension status. Our model had a sensitivity of 72.2% (95% CI, 58.1-83.1), specificity of 84.2% (95% CI, 78.0-89.0), a positive likelihood ratio of 4.6 (CI, 3.2-6.7), a negative likelihood ratio of 0.3 (CI, 0.2-0.5), and area under ROC curve, 0.79. CONCLUSION: It is possible to predict response to treatment before application of SMT in low back pain patients. Our model may benefit both patients and clinicians by reducing the time needed to re-evaluate an initial trial of care.

Chiropractic, one big unhappy family: better together or apart?

Background: The chiropractic profession has a long history of internal conflict. Today, the division is between the 'evidence-friendly' faction that focuses on musculoskeletal problems based on a contemporary and evidence-based paradigm, and the 'traditional' group that subscribes to concepts such as 'subluxation' and the spine as the centre of good health. This difference is becoming increasingly obvious and problematic from both within and outside of the profession in light of the general acceptance of evidence-based practice as the basis for health care.Because this is an issue with many factors to consider, we decided to illustrate it with an analogy. We aimed to examine the chiropractic profession from the perspective of an unhappy marriage by defining key elements in happy and unhappy marriages and by identifying factors that may determine why couples stay together or spilt up. Main body: We argue here that the situation within the chiropractic profession corresponds very much to that of an unhappy couple that stays together for reasons that are unconnected with love or even mutual respect. We also contend that the profession could be conceptualised as existing on a spectrum with the 'evidence-friendly' and the 'traditional' groups inhabiting the end points, with the majority of chiropractors in the middle. This middle group does not appear to be greatly concerned with either faction and seems comfortable taking an approach of 'you never know who and what will respond to spinal manipulation'. We believe that this 'silent majority' makes it possible for groups of chiropractors to practice outside the logical framework of today's scientific concepts. Conclusion: There is a need to pause and consider if the many reasons for disharmony within the chiropractic profession are, in fact, irreconcilable. It is time to openly debate the issue of a professional split by engaging in formal and courageous discussions. This item should be prioritised on the agendas of national associations, conferences, teaching institutions, and licensing/registration as well as accreditation bodies. However, for this to happen, the middle group of chiropractors will have to become engaged and consider the benefits and risks of respectively staying together or breaking up.

The McAndrews Leadership Lecture: February 2016, by Dr Greg Kawchuk. Putting the "Act" Back in Chiropractic.

The McAndrews Leadership Lecture was developed by the American Chiropractic Association to honor the legacy of Jerome F. McAndrews, DC, and George P. McAndrews, JD, and their contributions to the chiropractic profession. This article is an edited and truncated version of the McAndrews Leadership Lecture given by Dr Greg Kawchuk on February 27, 2016, in Washington, DC, at the National Chiropractic Leadership Conference. This was the second McAndrews lecture in this annual series.

The Accuracy of Locating Lumbar Vertebrae When Using Palpation Versus Ultrasonography.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of locating lumbar vertebrae using palpation vs ultrasonography. METHODS: In this study, ultrasonic imaging was used by 2 experienced clinicians to identify the third lumbar spinous process (target) of a female participant. The target was then located by 16 undergraduate chiropractic students using clinical palpation techniques learned in their academic program (with participant seated and prone) and ultrasonic imaging learned through a 5-minute training video. Presumed target locations identified by students were recorded by infrared motion capture equipment. The coordinates of the presumed target site were then compared statistically. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the presumed target position identified by the students using sitting and prone palpation (P = .346). These positions were significantly different from the target location identified by expert clinicians using ultrasonic imaging (P < .0001 in both cases). The vertebra identified by ultrasonic imaging by the students was the same vertebra identified by the expert clinicians using ultrasound. This position error in the vertebra identified by palpation resulted in the students mistakenly identifying the L4 spinous process as the target vertebra. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that ultrasonography provided more accurate identification of a lumbar spinal landmark when compared with palpation. In addition, our data suggest that ultrasonic imaging to identify spinal landmarks can be learned easily and can improve accuracy of landmark detection. Although the time to use ultrasonic imaging was greater than with palpation, these results suggest that this procedure could potentially be used in clinical practice to identify spinal landmarks.