Biomechanics and Chiropractic Care: Article Review

In the article entitled the “Effectiveness of Chiropractic Care to Improve Sensorimotor Function Associated with Falls Risk in Older People: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” Holt et al. (2016) focused on assessing the role of chiropractors and chiropractic care in older adult patients. Holt et al. (2016) conducted on a study that examined whether 12-weeks of chiropractic care effectively improved sensorimotor functioning with 64 older community-dwelling patients (over the age of 65 years old) at a heightened risk of falls when compared to no intervention. Since falls are the leading cause of death due to injury in older adults, outcomes inclusive of multisensory integration, postural stability, proprioception, quality of life (QoL) sensorimotor function were measured using the SF-36 at baseline, 4-weeks, and 12-weeks. 

In the chiropractic group, older patients demonstrated improvements in choice stepping reaction time by 119 milliseconds (95% CI) and 26-212 milliseconds (P = 0.1) (Holt et al., 2016). Research findings via x-rays and chart review also showed improvements in multisensory integration particularly sound-induced flash illusion by 13.5% (95% CI; 2.9-2.40%; P = .01) (Holt et al., 2016). From 4 weeks until the completion of the 12-week study, Holt et al. (2016) reported improvements in the patients physical QoL of 2.4% (95% CI, 0.04-4.8; P = .04) and ankle joint position sense by 20o (95% CI) with 0.01-0.39o (P = .049). Findings demonstrate that chiropractic care improved multisensory integration, physical QoL, and sensorimotor function in older patients at high risk of falls compared to those in the control group. These findings support previous research studies that proclaim that chiropractic care alters sensorimotor integration and somatosensory processing thus improving sensorimotor functioning (Holt et al., 2016). Future research studies should therefore focus on identifying if there is a correlation between chiropractic care and its effects on fall risk in adults over the age of 65 years old (Holt et al., 2016).

Reference

Holt, K. R., Haavik, H., Lee, A. C., Murphy, B., & Elley, C. R. (2016). Effectiveness of chiropractic care to improve sensorimotor function associated with falls risk in older people: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 39(4), 267-278. doi:10.1016/j.jmpt.2016.02.003.