Disparities in chiropractic utilization by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status: A scoping review of the literature

Chiropractic is the largest complementary and alternative medicine profession in the United States, with increasing global growth. A preliminary literature review suggests a lack of widespread diversity of chiropractic patient profiles. There have been no prior studies to comprehensively integrate the literature on chiropractic utilization rates by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The purpose of this scoping review is to identify and describe the current state of knowledge of chiropractic utilization by race, ethnicity, education level, employment status, and income and poverty level. Systematic searches were conducted in PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Index to Chiropractic Literature from inception to May 2021. Articles that reported race or ethnicity, education level, employment status, income or poverty level variables and chiropractic utilization rates for adults (≥18 years of age) were eligible for this review. Data extracted from articles were citation information, patient characteristics, race and ethnicity, education level, employment status, income and poverty level, and chiropractic utilization rate. A descriptive numerical summary of included studies is provided. This study provides a qualitative thematic narrative of chiropractic utilization with attention to race and ethnicity, education level, income and poverty level, and employment status. A total of 69 articles were eligible for review. Most articles were published since 2003 and reported data from study populations in the United States. Of the race, ethnicity and socioeconomic categories that were most commonly reported, chiropractic utilization was the highest for individuals identifying as European American/White/non-Hispanic White/Caucasian (median 20.00%; interquartile range 2.70%–64.60%), those with employment as a main income source (median utilization 78.50%; interquartile range 77.90%–79.10%), individuals with an individual or household/family annual income between $40,001 and $60,000 (median utilization 29.40%; interquartile range 25.15%–33.65%), and individuals with less than or equal to (12 years) high school diploma/general educational development certificate completion (median utilization 30.70%; interquartile range 15.10%–37.00%). This comprehensive review of the literature on chiropractic utilization by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status indicates differences in chiropractic utilization across diverse racial and ethnic and socioeconomic populations. Heterogeneity existed among definitions of key variables, including race, ethnicity, education level, employment status, and income and poverty level in the included studies, reducing clarity in rates of chiropractic utilization for these populations. Please cite this article as: Gliedt JA, Spector AL, Schneider MJ, Williams J, Young S. Disparities in chiropractic utilization by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status: A scoping review of the literature. J Integr Med. 2023; 21(2): 159–167.