Chiropractic research trends and current hotspots

This article shares the results of a chiropractic research study that analyzed published chiropractic articles over the last century.

It discusses overall trends, along with providing insight into research leaders and current topic hotspots.

We rely on scientific studies to better understand the best practices in chiropractic care. These pieces of research tell us which manipulative techniques work for which conditions, how different demographics of patients may respond to a specific treatment and more.

While all this information is beneficial, it can be difficult to keep up with the science since it is estimated that more than three million new articles are published annually. To help break the data down, a group of researchers examined chiropractic research trends from 1920 to 2023. Their findings were published in Complementary Therapies in Medicine in June 2024, and here’s what they found.

Chiropractic research trends: A century of data

Over the past 103 years, the amount of research published on chiropractic topics has grown substantially, increasing steadily over time. The first citation for chiropractic research was recorded in 1926. However, up until the 1990s, studies in this area could be considered “dormant” or “tentative.” This changed in 1996, when research started to take an upward trend, growing explosively between 2008 and 2023.

Over time, chiropractic evolved into one of the top-researched conservative treatments for spinal pain. This information was learned after the team conducted a bibliometric review of the evidence — which involves an analysis of various literature elements within large volumes of scientific evidence, including citations and publications—to summarize their findings.

At the same time, researchers noted that there is a lack of agreement as to the value of chiropractic, its future direction or even how the profession should be defined. Additionally, risks associated with spinal manipulation remain controversial in the literature.

Leaders in chiropractic research

This review also provided insight into who is paving the path in published chiropractic information. It found four countries leading the way. The United States has provided the most publications overall (1,471), followed by Canada (388), Australia (347) and the U.K. (227).

In terms of which authors are contributing the most data in this field, Eric Chun-Pu Chu is the most published with 30 publications. Alice Knogsted follows closely with 25 publications, as does Jan Hartvigsen with 24 publications. Other top contributors include Christine M. Goertz, Mitchell Haas, Robert J Trager and Jon Adams, among several others.

The institution making the greatest contribution to chiropractic research is the University of Southern Denmark (119 publications). The University of California System is second (77 publications), followed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (68 publications) and the University of Toronto (65 publications).

The Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics has published the most chiropractic articles at 876 and is also the most frequently co-cited. The Journal of Chiropractic Education holds the second slot for publication with 108 articles. The second most frequently co-cited publication is Spine, followed by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Chiropractic keywords

This study’s authors also analyzed keywords used in chiropractic research to help identify topic areas with the most interest. The keyword appearing most frequently was spinal manipulation (861). Low back pain was the next most common (671), followed by therapies (308) and pain (249).

Certain keywords have also trended at different points in time. For example, from the early 1990s to the early 2000s, cervical vertebrae and injury were among the trending keywords. Fast forward to 2015 to today and the top trending keywords include quality of life, musculoskeletal pain, chronic pain, and skills. This suggests that these topic areas are some of the current hotspots.

Final thoughts on chiropractic research

Analyses such as this help us better understand how chiropractic research has changed over time and who is leading the way. It also makes it exciting to consider where this research will go in the future, as we learn even more about the best practices in chiropractic care.