Osteopathic Treatment of Infants in Their First Year of Life: A Prospective Multicenter Observational Study (OSTINF Study)
Observational Study
- PMID: 33601373
- DOI: 10.1159/000514413
Introduction: In Germany in recent years, a growing number of parents are seeking help from osteopaths for the perceived health complaints of their infants and children. However, reliable evidence for the effectiveness of osteopathic interventions for this group of patients is largely lacking.
Objective: To observe and document changes in the symptoms of certain health disturbances, as perceived by parents, during the course of an osteopathic treatment of their baby, and associated side effects.
Methods: A single-arm, prospective, multicenter, observational study was chosen as the study design. Parents who contacted an osteopathic practice with any of the following 5 health disturbances were invited to include their baby into the study: idiopathic infant asymmetry (IA), deformational plagiocephaly (DP), feeding disorders (FD), excessive crying (EC), and sleep disorders (SD). Osteopaths performed osteopathic treatment as usual for these conditions, and the parents were asked to rate the perceived severity of symptoms on standardized forms including numerical rating scales (NRS 0-10). In DP, the head circumference of the child's skull was measured with a craniometer, and the cranial vault index (CVAI) was calculated....
Conclusions: This is one of the largest studies worldwide to date on the osteopathic treatment of infants. Osteopathic treatment was associated with major positive changes in the severity of perceived health complaints as assessed by parents, which in most cases were resolved as a matter of concern, and was proved to be a safe treatment modality among a large number of therapists....