The importance of setting and therapeutic relationships when delivering chiropractic care to those living with disadvantage.

Background: Chiropractic is a mostly privatised health profession within Australia, with people experiencing disadvantage typically having limited access due to financial barriers. However, some universities within Australia offer community outreach clinics where students provide chiropractic care to people living with disadvantage. This demographic experiences higher rates of chronic conditions including musculoskeletal complaints and requires subsidisation to access privatised care.

Does My Neck Make Me Clumsy? A Systematic Review of Clinical and Neurophysiological Studies in Humans.

Clumsiness has been described as a symptom associated with neck pain and injury. However, the actuality of this symptom in clinical practice is unclear. The aim of this investigation was to collect definitions and frequency of reports of clumsiness in clinical studies of neck pain/injury, identify objective measures of clumsiness and investigate the association between the neck and objective measures of clumsiness.

Effects of manual therapies on stability in people with musculoskeletal pain: a systematic review.

Introduction: Chronic musculoskeletal pain is associated with reduced balance performance and falls risk. Manual therapies are commonly used interventions for musculoskeletal pain. There is emerging evidence that manual therapies may improve balance.

Chiropractors` experience and readiness to work in Indigenous Australian Communities: a preliminary cross-sectional survey to explore preparedness, perceived barriers and facilitators for chiropractors practising cross-culturally.

Background: Indigenous people make up approximately 3% of the total Australian population and score poorer on all health indices, including back pain. Chiropractors are well placed to alleviate back pain, yet there is no research that considers chiropractors' readiness to treat Indigenous patients. This study explores chiropractors` experience working with Indigenous Australians, describes perceived barriers and facilitators to chiropractors' participation in Indigenous Healthcare and their willingness to engage in cultural competency training.

Who consults chiropractors in Victoria, Australia?: Reasons for attending, general health and lifestyle habits of chiropractic patients.

Background: COAST (Chiropractic Observational and Analysis STudy) reported the clinical practices of chiropractors. The aims of this study were to: 1) describe the chiropractic patient demographic and health characteristics; 2) describe patient-stated reasons for visiting a chiropractor; 3) describe chiropractic patient lifestyle characteristics; 4) compare, where possible, chiropractic patient characteristics to the general Australian population.

Methods: Fifty-two chiropractors in Victoria, Australia, provided information for up to 100 consecutive encounters.

Chiropractic Observation and Analysis Study (COAST): providing an understanding of current chiropractic practice.

Objectives: COAST (Chiropractic Observation and Analysis Study) aimed to describe the clinical practices of chiropractors in Victoria, Australia.

Design: Cross-sectional study using the BEACH (Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health) methods for general practice.

Setting And Participants: 180 chiropractors in active clinical practice in Victoria were randomly selected from the list of 1298 chiropractors registered on Chiropractors Registration Board of Victoria.

Embedding chiropractic in Indigenous Health Care Organisations: applying the normalisation process model.

Background: Improving the health of Indigenous Australians remains a major challenge. A chiropractic service was established to evaluate this treatment option for musculoskeletal illness in rural Indigenous communities, based on the philosophy of keeping the community involved in all the phases of development, implementation, and evaluation. The development and integration of this service has experienced many difficulties with referrals, funding and building sustainability.

Can neck muscle spindle afferents activate fusimotor neurons of the lower limb?

Introduction: We investigated whether vibratory stimulation of the dorsal neck muscles activates fusimotor neurons of lower limb muscles in relaxed human subjects.

Methods: The triceps surae (TS) muscles of seated subjects (n = 15) were conditioned to leave their muscle spindles in either an insensitive (hold-long) or sensitive (hold-short) state. A vibrator (80 HZ) was applied to the dorsal neck muscles for 10 seconds.

Use of the measure your medical outcome profile (MYMOP2) and W-BQ12 (Well-Being) outcomes measures to evaluate chiropractic treatment: an observational study.

Background: The objective was to assess the use of the Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile (MYMOP2) and W-BQ12 well-being questionnaire for measuring clinical change associated with a course of chiropractic treatment.

Methods: Chiropractic care of the patients involved spinal manipulative therapy (SMT), mechanically assisted techniques, soft tissue therapy, and physiological therapeutic devices.Outcome measures used were MYMOP2 and the Well-Being Questionnaire 12 (W-BQ12).

Muscle activation patterns in the scapular positioning muscles during loaded scapular plane elevation: the effects of Latent Myofascial Trigger Points.

Background: Latent Myofascial Trigger Points are pain-free neuromuscular lesions that have been found to affect muscle activation patterns in the unloaded state. The aim was to extend these observations to loaded motion by investigating muscle activation patterns in upward scapular rotator muscles (upper and lower trapezius and serratus anterior) hosting Latent Myofascial Trigger Points simultaneously with lesion-free synergists for shoulder abduction (infraspinatus and middle deltoid). This approach allowed examination of the effects of these lesions on both their hosts and their lesion-free synergists in order to understand their effects on the performance of shoulder abduction.

The STTEP: a Model for musculoskeletal health care in marginalized communities.

Background And Objectives: This article introduces the STTEP (Sustainable Training, Treatment, Employment Program) Model. The Model has been in operation since 1995. It provides a useful conceptual framework for policy makers, practitioners, and educators.

Effects of body position on autonomic regulation of cardiovascular function in young, healthy adults.

Background: Analysis of rhythmic patterns embedded within beat-to-beat variations in heart rate (heart rate variability) is a tool used to assess the balance of cardiac autonomic nervous activity and may be predictive for prognosis of some medical conditions, such as myocardial infarction. It has also been used to evaluate the impact of manipulative therapeutics and body position on autonomic regulation of the cardiovascular system. However, few have compared cardiac autonomic activity in supine and prone positions, postures commonly assumed by patients in manual therapy.