The association between chiropractors’ view of practice and patient encounter-level characteristics in Ontario, Canada: a cross-sectional study

Table 3 Effect estimates of the association between unorthodox view of practice^a and encounter characteristics (n = 3378 encounters)

	Unadjusted	Age and sex adjusted	Fully adjusted
Subluxation diagnosis^b
Unorthodox	OR 108.90 (95% CI 8.46–1401.35)	OR 63.33 (95% CI 4.35–922.72)	OR 63.02 (95% CI 4.18–949.07)
Orthodox	Reference (1.00)	Reference (1.00)	Reference (1.00)
ICC (intercept only: 80.24%)	75.25%	74.98%	75.36%
Duration of encounter^c
Unorthodox	0.57 (95% CI 0.38–0.84)	0.57 (95% CI 0.38–0.84)	0.59 (95% CI 0.41–0.86)
Orthodox	Reference (0.00)	Reference (0.00)	Reference (0.00)
ICC (intercept only: 55.10%)	50.67%	50.70%	48.67%
Unimodal manipulative treatment^d
Unorthodox	OR 6.51 (95% CI 0.24–179.77)	OR 7.73 (95% CI 0.24–247.97)	OR 7.37 (95% CI 0.22–243.55)
Orthodox	Reference (1.00)	Reference (1.00)	Reference (1.00)
ICC (intercept only: 71.63%)	72.19%	73.01%	72.63%
Non-musculoskeletal condition as reason for encounter^e
Unorthodox	OR 9.66 (2.92–31.92)	OR 9.93 (95% CI 2.52–39.20)	OR 16.46 (95% CI 3.23–83.96)
Orthodox	Reference (1.00)	Reference (1.00)	Reference (1.00)
ICC (intercept only: 33.66%)	23.09%	27.19%	31.45%

CI confidence interval, ICC intraclass correlation coefficientl, OR odds ratio
^aUnorthodox view of practice defined as viewing vertebral subluxation as an encumbrance to the expression of health that is corrected to benefit patient well-being; all other views of practice considered orthodox
^bRefers to diagnosis that used the term “subluxation”; model adjusted for age, sex, new patient encounter, extended health insurance as payment, injury related to motor vehicle collision, injury related to workers’ compensation, and imaging ordered during encounter
^cRefers to duration of patient encounter in minutes (229 encounters excluded due to missing or nonsensical data); based on linear (log-transformed) regression models adjusted for age, sex, new patient encounter, extended health insurance as payment method, injury related to motor vehicle collision, injury related to workers’ compensation, and imaging ordered during encounter
^dRefers to treatment that consisted of manual adjustments or treatment using a chiropractic system only; model adjusted for age, sex, new patient encounter, and extended health insurance as payment method (other variables could not be included because model would not converge)
^eRefers to reason for encounter for a non-musculoskeletal condition; model adjusted for age, sex, new patient encounter, and extended health insurance as payment method (other variables could not be included because model would not converge)

ISSN: 2045-709X