The study is the first of its kind in the world and was conducted at Blekinge Hospital in Karlskrona.
"County councils could become more efficient and significantly shorten waiting lists if they began to use naprapathy to a greater extent in patient treatment," says Jan Arvidsson, Chairman of the Swedish Napropathic Association. "It would reduce suffering and save taxpayer money."
The study was conducted on 80 patients on the orthopedic waiting list at Blekinge Hospital in Karlskrona. The patients, all of whom suffered from long-term muscle and joint pain, were randomly divided into two groups. All patients were treated at the orthopedic clinic, one group by orthopedic doctors and the other by a napropath.
Improvements in pain and physical function were significantly greater in the naprapathy group compared to the orthopedic group at all follow-ups. One year after completing treatment, more than 64 percent of patients in the naprapathy group felt they had become "somewhat or much better," compared to 28 percent in the orthopedic group. Only five percent of patients in the naprapathy group, but a full 35 percent in the orthopedic group, were still receiving some form of care one year after the treatment program ended.
"Many of these patients have fallen into a gap between primary care and specialist care. The research report shows that for these patients, naprapathy is more effective than the care currently offered," says Jan Arvidsson.
"This research report, like previous scientific studies, shows that naprapathy is a treatment method that, if utilized correctly, could be of great benefit within public healthcare. Today, patients are offered publicly funded naprapathy to a very limited extent. Of the approximately 1.5 million treatments performed annually by the country's napropaths, only 2–3 percent are publicly funded."
According to a 2009 SKOP survey, nearly 2 out of 3 Swedes would prefer to see a napropath rather than go to a health center for acute back pain—if the patient fee were the same.
"We hope that the county councils will now, in light of the scientific facts available, see the possibilities of letting napropaths relieve the burden on public healthcare and thereby follow the intentions of the Health and Medical Services Act, which protects the patient's right to choose their form of care," concludes Jan Arvidsson.
Swedish Napropathic Association 2010-08-23