Risk of Vertebrobasilar Stroke and Chiropractic Care: Results of a Population-Based Case-Control and Case-Crossover Study
818 Strokes, 109 Million Person-Years
SOURCE
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18204390/
REFERENCE
17
NICE
REFERENCE
123
organisation
Spine
TITLE
Risk of Vertebrobasilar Stroke and Chiropractic Care: Results of a Population-Based Case-Control and Case-Crossover Study
818 Strokes, 109 Million Person-Years
SOURCE
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18204390/
DISC COMMENTARY
This large Canadian case-control and case-crossover study examined whether visiting a chiropractor is associated with vertebrobasilar artery stroke, a rare but serious event. It compared chiropractic and GP visits before a stroke against visits among people who had not had one.
What was studied?
Researchers analysed over 109 million person-years of data and identified 818 VBA strokes, comparing chiropractic and GP visits beforehand against matched visits in people without a stroke, separately for people under and over 45.
What did they find?
In people under 45, both chiropractic and GP visits were about three times more common before a stroke than in controls, with almost identical patterns for both. There was no increased association in people over 45.
Why it matters
Comparing chiropractic visits against GP visits for the same symptoms helps separate care-seeking before a stroke from a treatment actually causing it. A similar pattern across both professions points toward care-seeking as the explanation.
Why we included it
It shows why comparing against a matched control group matters when judging rare, serious events: the same pattern regardless of practitioner type points to an underlying cause, not the treatment itself.
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What was studied?
Researchers analysed over 109 million person-years of data and identified 818 VBA strokes, comparing chiropractic and GP visits beforehand against matched visits in people without a stroke, separately for people under and over 45.
What did they find?
In people under 45, both chiropractic and GP visits were about three times more common before a stroke than in controls, with almost identical patterns for both. There was no increased association in people over 45.
Why it matters
Comparing chiropractic visits against GP visits for the same symptoms helps separate care-seeking before a stroke from a treatment actually causing it. A similar pattern across both professions points toward care-seeking as the explanation.
Why we included it
It shows why comparing against a matched control group matters when judging rare, serious events: the same pattern regardless of practitioner type points to an underlying cause, not the treatment itself.