Most information regarding adverse events (AEs) following osteopathic treatment is anecdotal; empirical data are limited. We explored the feasibility of online questionnaires to capture AEs prospectively within an osteopathic teaching clinic, and explored associations between We piloted a prospective patient-completed online questionnaire rating (‘none’/‘mild’/‘moderate’/‘severe’/‘don't know’) 14 symptoms ( ‘Pain’ (82%), ‘stiffness’ (40%) and ‘lack of mobility’ (28%) were the main presenting complaints, and ‘lower back’ (39%), ‘head/neck’ (26%) and ‘upper limb’ (14%) the commonest regions affected. AEs were reported by 83% of patients; ‘pain’ (74%), ‘stiffness’ (58%) and ‘unexpected tiredness’ (10%) were the most frequently reported. These peaked at 24, 48 and 24 hours respectively and were commonly rated as ‘mild’. There was no evidence for age, gender, HVLAT in crude or adjusted models; there were very weak/weak suggestions smoking cessation may be associated with reporting AEs; adjusted OR for ex-smokers versus never-smokers was 3.50 (0.66–18.40; P=0.14); ex-smokers versus smokers was 5.67 (0.85–37.80; P=0.07)).Background and Purpose
Methods and Results