The clinical indicators associated with recommending continued care for neck pain were investigated in a Norwegian study. The authors of the paper recommended continued care beyond four weeks for patients experiencing neck pain if one or more of the following three clinical indicators were present:
The study revealed that a long duration of neck pain was the strongest clinical indicator for recommending continued care after four weeks. It also showed that the number of clinical indicators found in a patient influenced if the patient was advised to continue the treatment beyond four weeks.
The recommendations were based on the patients’ history of a long duration of neck pain and were not influenced by the chiropractors’ characteristics.
Birgitte Lawaetz Myhrvold, Nina K. Vøllestad, Pernille Irgens, Hilde Stendal Robinson & Iben Axén. Clinical indicators for recommending continued care to patients with neck pain in chiropractic practice: a cohort study. Chiropractic & Manual Therapies volume 31, Article number: 33 (2023)
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