Table 3 Summary of studies included in the qualitative synthesis
Study reference number | Country | Participants | Data collection methods | Data analysis methods |
|---|---|---|---|---|
[37] | United States (US) | Trained and licensed chiropractor in a small town in the American Midwest | Ethnographic case-report | Not explicitly specified, but healing performance of a chiropractor is proposed to contain four intrinsic claims to trustworthiness |
[34] | US | 20 Patients at the group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound | Discussion groups | Information for the qualitative analysis and findings was limited |
[44] | Canada | 6 Chiropractors licensed with the College of Chiropractors of British Columbia | Interviews | Thematic analysis |
[42] | US | 15 Randomly selected participants from the 29 participants randomised to the chiropractic group | Interviews | Grounded theory approach |
[46] | Canada | 197 Participants were recruited from 20 participating chiropractors in Ontario | Interviews using Flanagan’s Critical Incident Technique | Inductive content analysis |
[35] | Australia | 208 Patients were observed | Recording duration of all patient–practitioner interactions was recorded, some were audiotaped, notes taking | Thematic analysis |
[36] | Australia | 9 Chiropractors and 173 patients | Interviews | Data were analysed by comparing the responses of individual patients with those of their practitioner in each of 173 case studies |
[39] | US | 171 Participants part of a randomised control trial | Interviews | Interactive approach to qualitative content analysis |
[45] | Canada | 6 Focus groups, a total of 69 patients | Focus group sessions | Qualitative content analysis (an interpretive approach) |
[38] | US | A male family chiropractor and a sample of 57 people, who made a total of 104 office visits between them | Data were collected through (1) audiotape of all clinical interaction of the chiropractor for 8 days, (2) formal and informal interviews with the chiropractors., his staff, and patients | Data was content analysed using the modified Bales method of process analysis [69] |
[43] | Canada | 11 Chiropractors and nine patients | Interviews | Grounded theory approach |
[47] | US | 60 Participants in the Crotched Mountain | Individual interviews or focus groups | Thematic content analysis |
[40] | Canada | 3 Female patients and 3 male patients in the Halifax metro area, Nova Scotia, Canada | Focused ethnographic approach involving 16 semi-structured interviews | A systematic approach for analysing ethnographic data developed by Roper and Shapira [70] |
[41] | Canada | 90 Participants were recruited from two private chiropractic clinics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada | Interviews | Thematic analysis |