The Design of a Practice-based Study of Attendees at Chiropractic Offices in Western Australia

Introduction: This paper presents the protocols for a pilot study that will provide a design critique and collect information to describe the patients who attend chiropractors in Western Australia.
Aims and Objectives:
1. Provide a critique of the research design and methodology, including enrolment and recruitment, data collection, and sample size calculations.
2. Describe the patient demographics, reason for consultation and baseline health status of patients that present to chiropractic practices in Western Australia.
Methods/Research Design: This will be a prospective, cross-sectional, practice-based pilot study of patients seeking chiropractic services in Western Australia. A minimum of seven (7) independent private chiropractic practices across urban, regional, rural and remote settings will be recruited. Consecutive adult patients that self-present to these practices for the first time will be invited to participate. Data for analysis will be collected in participating clinics using a computer-based online questionnaire. Data collected will include; patient demographics; age, gender, primary language, occupation, payment source, presenting complaint, prior treatment, pre-existing health conditions, medications, attendance at other health practitioners, lifestyle choices, previous use of chiropractic and human quality of life measures (HQoL’s; SF-12 and PIQ-R). Priori sample size estimation indicates a total sample of 320 would be sufficient to achieve a study power of >80% (assumed effect size 0.2, α=0.05, assumed df=5).
Conclusion: Innovative electronic and internet portals for gathering practice-based data are to be assessed. Information describing patients who attend allied and complementary practitioners is critical to facilitate appropriate and effective health system planning and administration in Western Australia.