Abstract
Background: The University of Johannesburg’s Chiropractic Student Clinic collects a limited amount of demographical data such as; age, gender, ID number, residential address, medical aid, and employment status, however many of these questions fail to pay attention to the detail necessary to collect a comprehensive and expanded patient profile. Another reason why the collection of patient demographics is so important is to see who participated in the services provided. This is important because then when a study is done researchers are able to accurately describe those who participated and make generalization to a larger population easier.
Aim: The aim of this study was to gather a comprehensive, expanded and detailed patient profile of patients visiting the University of Johannesburg’s Chiropractic student clinic in one month in 2022.
Method: The proposed study design was a cross-sectional, explorative, quantitative study. The sample size was the patients that visited the University of Johannesburg’s Chiropractic Student clinic (UJCSC) from 19 May 2022 to 28 July 2022. The survey questionnaire was made by looking at recent literature. This made the questionnaire better suited to capture the correct demographical data necessary for this research dissertation.
Procedure: The demographic survey was distributed to the patients when their files were collected where they completed the survey in person. No name or personal information was necessary, except for the answers to the questions on the survey thus supporting our policy of confidentiality and anonymity. A consent form was attached to the survey, which detailed what the study was about and what was expected of the participant. The survey took about 5-10 minutes to complete. The participant left the questionnaire and consent form in the file and was able to take the information letter with them. The questionnaire and consent form was collected from the files at the end of each day and placed into the applicable marked boxes.
Results: Data was collected to determine the demographical characteristics of the patients that visited the clinic over a certain period of time. The study collected 101
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responses from the participants. It was difficult to ascertain the correct amount of patients that visited the clinic in that period of time, as many students see their patients more than once during a 2-month period, as such the response rate could not be calculated accurately by weighing it against the number of patients seen during the data collection period.
The primary findings were as follows:
Fifty-six (55.4%) participants were female and 44 (43.6%) were male with the most prominent age grouping of 15-24 (n=32) followed by 35-44 (n=23). The median age of the population sample was 38.34 years. Of the 101 responses 35 (34.7%) of the participants were Black African, 33 (32.7%) Caucasian and 20 (19.8%) Indian.
The data showed that most participants finished high school (n=99) and then a sizable portion went on to finish tertiary diploma’s and degrees (n=72). The most common language spoken by the participants at home was English (63.4%), followed by Afrikaans (11.9%), and IsiZulu (5.9%). The most prominent socioeconomic group ascertained from the population group was the middle class (n=65), followed by upper class (n=24) and lower class (n=20).
The most common reason participants visited the clinic was, back pain (n=52), lower back pain (n=41), neck pain (n=32), and shoulder pain (n=30).
Various factors tend to influence patients when they visited the UJCSC, some of the factors played an important role, however many others did not influence their visit to the UJCSC.
Twenty-nine participants responded that the clinic was close to their place of residence, 50 responded that the UJCSC had an affordable pricing policy. The factors that had a marked influence on the participants were as follows; the clinic has suitably qualified chiropractors (n=78), treatment was satisfactory (n=73), affordable (n=78), clean (n=79), and well organised (n=79).
Conclusion: The data collected over the initial 30-day period did not meet the minimum number of responses required by Statkon for the data to be meaningful. Hence, the data collection period was extended until the minimum of 100 responses time it took
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was 2-months. Although the minimum responses were met, this relatively low number made it difficult to generalize the demographic findings of the research to the general public. As it stands a follow-up study should be done for a longer period of time to increase the response rate to correctly represent the population group that visited the clinic.