As the inventor of chiropractic is American, it is relatively normal to find a plethora of studies and data on this health care practice in the United States.
We will assume that the United States and Europe have enough in common to extrapolate the American figures and thus outline what chiropractic could represent for Luxembourg.
The "Good Body" is an independent American website that searches for research and studies related to health, pain management, sleep, fitness and well-being.
Using their sources from 10 health sites, they have summarised the impact of chiropractic in the US in a few key figures.
35 million Americans are treated annually by a chiropractor. Given that the total population is around 350 million, this represents 10% of Americans, regardless of gender or age.
1 million chiropractic adjustments are performed every day.
The chiropractic industry is valued at over $15 billion.
70,000 practitioners are registered in the United States. About 100,000 worldwide.
For lower back pain, chiropractic techniques are 40% more effective than conventional medical care.
Chiropractic care has a much lower injury rate than general primary care.
46% of patients who visit a chiropractor do so for lower back pain, followed by neck pain.
The US estimates that regular visits to a chiropractor would reduce drug costs by 85%. This point is not necessarily extrapolable to Luxembourg because in the US the propensity to prescribe and consume medication is higher than in Europe.
Taking a population of 634,700 in Luxembourg on 1 January 2021 (Source: https://statistiques.public.lu), we obtain the following estimates of what chiropractic could represent in our country:
63.000 people could be treated annually
1.800 adjustments could take place daily
More than 65.000.000 EUR of annual turnover (taking a consultation cost of 90 EUR against 400 USD in the US).
To achieve these figures, 1,200 active chiropractors would be needed in the country. At present, Luxembourg has about twenty of them.
We can see here the important gap that exists between 2 health care cultures and the potential that the old continent, from which Luxembourg could benefit.
