I question the conclusion cited by Boyd R. Buser, DO, et al in the article “Osteopathic Emergency Physician Training and Use of Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment” (J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2004;104:15-21). The authors conclude that osteopathic emergency physicians frequently use osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). Table 3 of the same article cites frequency of use among the 944 respondents as daily, 11.4%; weekly, 16.8%; monthly/rarely, 26.7%; and never, 45%. It seems to me that the rarely-never group cited at 71.7% is the dominant number and thus the conclusion should state that most osteopathic emergency physicians rarely or never use OMT.
I wonder whether the authors' conclusions are nothing more than wishful thinking, for certainly the conclusion they drew is not supported by their own statistics.