With the assistance of the General Chiropractic Council (GCC), the ASA and CAP have sent a joint letter to all registered Chiropractors to advise them about some newly published guidance that looks at how chiropractors can ensure that the advertising of their services adheres to the rules in the Advertising Code.
The ASA guidance was developed partly in response to a request from representative chiropractic bodies to review new evidence in relation to the multi modal therapies commonly used by chiropractors to treat sciatica, sports injuries and whiplash. The guidance examines the ASA’s findings based on that evidence and explores in some detail which types of claim are likely to be acceptable, as well as which types of claim are likely to be a problem when used in advertising.
The guidance also looks at claims chiropractors often make in relation to the treatment of babies, children and pregnant women. As regulated health professionals, chiropractors are of course permitted to reference their treatment of specific population groups. However, due to a lack of appropriately robust evidence being provided to the ASA and CAP to date, claims which go beyond this and refer to conditions or symptoms specific to those patient groups are likely to be a problem. The ASA guidance explores this position in detail with illustrative examples of both problematic and acceptable claims.
CAP has also updated its AdviceOnline entry concerning chiropractic to reflect the ASA guidance.
Links
https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/health-chiropractic.html
