Availability of manual therapy in hospitals in the Guangdong province, China: a cross-sectional web-based survey

Objective

This study aimed to investigate the quality and needs of manual therapy (MT) services in Guangdong provincial hospitals, including their scale, technological devices, scope of treatments, knowledge background, and challenges.

Methods

A total of 48 hospitals across the Guangdong province participated in completing a Web-based, self-report survey between October 2021 to December 2021. Multiple Poisson regression models were used to determine factors affecting these practices.

Results

This investigation revealed a substantial demand for MT among patients, particularly those with musculoskeletal disorders. Over the past three years (2019-2021), each MT department attended to 9,655 patients annually, with the largest hospital accommodating up to 12,000 patients annually. Additionally, the prevalence of patients seeking MT services exhibited an inverse correlation with specific diagnoses and treatment regimens (β=0.857; OR = 2.356; 95% CI [2.339, 2.373]). However, only 37.5% of hospitals had autonomous MT departments, possibly contributing to the absence of comprehensive development plans (β=0.249; OR = 1.282; 95% CI [1.113, 1.477]). Moreover, the literature on MT remains scant in quantity and quality, mainly due to a shortage of technical equipment (β=2.606; OR = 13.550; 95% CI [7.797, 23.549]). There persisted a notable discrepancy in the adoption and advancement of MT.

Conclusions

Despite the growing demand for MT among patients, MT departments in Guangdong are limited in scope, encountering shortages of technological devices and educational resources. MT is predominantly applied to orthopedic cases, grounded in rehabilitation science and Traditional Chinese medicine.