Alternative Medicine Surveys Continued...

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Dr. Bryan Dempsey is in private practice and well known for his contribution in health and fitness.

Contribution from Bryan Dempsey

By Bryan Dempsey

Phone Surveys

Eisenberg, David and Ettner, who are Alternative medicine therapists in the UnitedStates, conducted two national telephone surveys of two randomly selected sets of adults, surveying levels of CAM usage in 1990 and 1997 respectively.

Sixteen Alternative Therapies

They questioned respondents on their use of sixteen 'alternative therapies' and defined accessing alternative medicine as having used at least one of the sixteen therapies (either as an over-the-counterpreparation or through a professional consultation) within the previous year.The sixteen therapies included several that we did not include in our Call forEvidence, e.g. mega-vitamins, self-help groups, imagery, and commercial andlifestyle diets.

Did Not Include Osteopathy

Their remit did not include osteopathy which was included inour Call for Evidence, and which is generally regarded as a mainstream medical speciality in the USA. The results of this survey are shown in Table 2. In boththe 1990 and the 1997 surveys, alternative therapies were used mainly forchronic conditions such as back pain, allergies, anxiety, depression andheadaches.

Expenditures

The authors of the survey found that extrapolation of their results to the entire population of the USA suggested a 47.3% total increase in visits to alternative practitioners, from 427 million to 629 million (which was more than the number of visits to all US primary care physicians). Out-of-pocket expenditure on alternative therapies was estimated at $27.0 billion in 1997.

Table 2: Use of CAM in the USA

	1990 (%)	1997 (%)
Use of any CAM in past 12 months	33.8†	42.1†
of which‡
Relaxation techniques	13.1	16.3
Herbal medicine	2.5	12.1
Massage	6.9	11.1
Chiropractic	10.1	11.0
Spiritual healing	4.2	7.0
Homeopathy	0.7	3.4
Acupuncture	0.4	1.0

Source: two nationally representative random household telephone surveys.

Philosophical Orientation

Alternative medicine national postal survey of 1035 adults which was designed specifically to find out why patients use CAM wasconducted in the USA in 1998. The survey asked about respondent's need for control over their own health; their philosophical orientation towards religion,spirituality, mind and body; their belief in the efficacy of conventionalmedicine and their general health and demographic statistics.

Predictors of Alternative HealthCare

A multiple regression analysis was then used to identify predictors of alternative healthcare use. The most significant predictor was higher educational status,followed by overall health status. Chronic health problems such as anxiety, back problems, urinary tract problems and chronic pain were each also significant predictors of CAM use.

Note: Image(s) the courtesy of http://www.dreamstime.com.