Canadian chiropractic care seekers, compared with GP patients, tend to be under 65, white, and college educated; report higher incomes and greater happiness with life; have arthritis, bodily pain, and activity limitations due to back or neck pain; and perceive the quality of physician care to be fair or poor, and to not be satisfied with it.
Participants with high intakes of dietary folate were more likely to be college educated, report excellent health, exercise ⩾5 times per week, and use multivitamin supplements but less likely to be current smokers; they consumed more fruits and vegetables and whole grains but less alcohol.
The inverse association of unmet needs with perceived poverty (the poor reporting more unmet needs) and with education (the less educated reporting less unmet needs) is also of interest.
Dental anxiety varied systematically with educational level, with higher educated reporting dental anxiety more- and less frequently than their lower educated counterparts in 1997 and 2007, respectively (Table 3).
Below age 40, lower educated reported more TB history, but above age 40, higher educated reported more TB history.
More than half of all participants were college educated, reported an annual income greater than $40 000 and reported being non-Hispanic/White.
Participants, who reported higher levels of loneliness at baseline were older, less educated, reported less frequent participation in social, physical, and cognitive activities, reported more disability, had lower cognitive function, and were more likely to have vascular diseases (Table 2).
Participants with higher global motor scores were younger and better educated, reported a larger social network; with more frequent social, cognitive and physical activities, less disability, better cognition, less depressive symptoms and vascular diseases (Table 2).
Patients in paid work were statistically significantly different from those not working (p < 0.001) regarding gender (more men), age (younger), higher educated, reporting less pain and tiredness, having lower disease activity (DAS 28-3) better physical functioning (MHAQ), and higher score on all the subscales, PCS and MCS of SF-36 (p < 0.001; data not shown).
In that study, the majority of patients seeking CAM therapies was described as being more educated, reporting poorer health, and selecting CAM therapies not because of dissatisfaction with conventional therapies, but because alternative therapies were more congruent with their values and health beliefs.
They were younger and more educated, reported higher alcohol intake, had a family history for diabetes less often, and met the ATP III/IDF criteria for metabolic syndrome less often compared with the entire group (P < 0.001; no differences were found in sex distribution or frequency of smoking and regular exercise, P > 0.31).
