Chiropractic Maintenance Care in Wānaka for Recurring Low Back Pain: A Look at the Research

If you've dealt with low back pain that keeps coming back — whether it's from a day on the bike trails, a big ski season, or just bending down to tie your boots — you've probably wondered whether there's a way to stay on top of it, rather than waiting for the next flare-up to knock you around.

It's a question we get asked often here in Wānaka, where so many of our patients are active on the trails, the slopes, or the water and want to keep it that way. A recent study published in PLOS ONE looked specifically at this question and Chiropractic maintenance care, the results are worth understanding — along with their limits.

What Is Maintenance Care?

Maintenance care refers to a way of scheduling chiropractic visits at set intervals, rather than only booking in once pain has returned. It's one of two common approaches used in chiropractic practice:

• Maintenance care: visits scheduled by the clinician at set intervals (commonly no more than every three months).

• Symptom-guided care: the patient books a visit if and when symptoms return.

Both are used in everyday chiropractic practice, and which approach suits a particular patient is something to discuss with your chiropractor as part of an individual care plan.

What a Recent Study Looked At

A study published in PLOS ONE in 2018 compared these two scheduling approaches in a group of 319 chiropractic patients in Sweden who had recurring or persistent low back pain [1]. All participants had already completed an initial course of chiropractic care before the study began.

Participants were randomly allocated to either the maintenance care group or the symptom-guided group, and their symptoms were tracked weekly by text message over a 12-month period — one of the more detailed data sets collected in this area of research.

What the Researchers Found

Over the following 12 months, patients tracked their symptoms weekly by text message — over 16,000 data points in total, which is a substantial amount of real-world information. On average, the maintenance care group reported around 13 fewer days of "bothersome" low back pain (pain that affected their daily activities) across the year, compared with the group who only came in when pain flared up [1]. This came at the cost of roughly two additional visits over the year. No serious adverse events were reported in either group [1].

What This Means — and What It Doesn't

It's worth being upfront about the limits of this research, because that's what good evidence-based practice looks like.

• This trial specifically selected patients who had already responded well to an initial course of care — it doesn't tell us how maintenance care performs for everyone with low back pain.

• The reduction in pain days was modest on a week-to-week basis, even though it added up over a year.

• Results from one country's chiropractic patients won't necessarily transfer perfectly to every clinical setting.

What the study does add is reasonably solid evidence that, for the right patients, spacing out preventive visits can be associated with fewer days of bothersome pain than waiting for pain to return before seeking care — without any increase in reported harm.

This lines up with what we see clinically: recurring low back pain often responds well to an initial course of care, and for some patients, staying ahead of it with periodic check-ins can be part of a sensible long-term plan — alongside the things that make the biggest difference day to day, like how you move, how you load your spine, and how active you stay.

Chiropractic Maintenance Care Right for You?

Every back is different, and what works for one patient in a Swedish trial won't automatically be the right plan for you. Maintenance care isn't a one-size-fits-all recommendation, and it's not a substitute for addressing the underlying cause of your pain in the first place.

If your low back pain keeps returning after activities like hiking the Rob Roy track, a big weekend on the mountain bike, or simply sitting at a desk for long stretches, the first step is a proper assessment — not guessing at how often you should be coming in.

At Active Chiropractic Wānaka, our approach starts with an individual assessment rather than a standard schedule. This typically includes:

• A detailed history of your presenting concern and general health.

• A postural and movement assessment, including the MAT (Movement Assessment Technique).

• A neurological, orthopaedic and functional assessment.

From there, Dr Robert Moore will discuss the treatment options available and, where relevant, talk through how visits might be scheduled going forward — whether that's a defined course of care, an as-needed approach, or a longer-term scheduling plan — based on your specific situation. 

Finding Out What's Right for You

Every case is assessed individually, and a scheduling approach that suits one person may not suit another. If you'd like to discuss your own history of recurring back pain, the best next step is an assessment rather than general advice from an article.

Book an initial consultation with Dr Robert Moore, or get in touch if you'd like to ask a question first. Many chiropractic consultations for injury-related low back pain may also be ACC-covered — our team can talk you through eligibility.

Active Chiropractic Wānaka 23 Cardrona Valley Road, Wānaka 9305 Phone: 03 443 0741 | Email: info@activechiro.co.nz

This article summarises a single published study for general interest and educational purposes. It does not describe the outcomes of care provided at Active Chiropractic Wānaka, and it is not a claim about the safety or effectiveness of chiropractic care generally or in any individual case. This content is not a substitute for an individual assessment. If you have persistent or worsening back pain, please see a registered health practitioner.

References

1. Eklund A, Jensen I, Lohela-Karlsson M, Hagberg J, Leboeuf-Yde C, Kongsted A, Bodin L, Axén I. The Nordic Maintenance Care program: Effectiveness of chiropractic maintenance care versus symptom-guided treatment for recurrent and persistent low back pain—A pragmatic randomized controlled trial. PLoS One. 2018;13(9):e0203029. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0203029. Available from: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0203029