Chiropractic practice in military and veterans health care: The state of the literature

OBJECTIVE: To summarize scholarly literature that describes practice, utilization, and/or policy of chiropractic services within international active duty and/or veteran health care environments. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and the Index to Chiropractic Literature were searched from their starting dates through June 2009. REVIEW METHODS: All authors independently reviewed each of the articles to verify that each met the inclusion criteria. Citations of included papers and other pertinent findings were logged in a summary table. RESULTS: Thirteen articles were included in this study. Integration of chiropractic care into military or veteran health care systems has been described in 3 systems: the United States Department of Defense, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Canadian Forces. CONCLUSION: Chiropractic services seem to be included successfully within military and veteran health care facilities. However, there is a great need for additional written evaluation of the processes, policies, practices, and effectiveness of chiropractic services in these environments.

J Can Chiropr Assoc. 2009 Aug;53(3):194-204. Green BN, Johnson CD, Lisi AJ, Tucker J. Chiropractic Division, Department of Physical and Occupational Therapy, Naval Medical Center San Diego, MCAS Miramar Branch Medical Clinic, PO Box 452002, San Diego, CA 92145-2002. Email: bart.green@med.navy.mil.