Abstract
BackgroundStroke is the second most common cause of death worldwide. Even after surviving, long-term rehabilitation often becomes necessary and does not always lead to complete recovery. Guidelines focus on prevention of risk factors and present concepts for rehabilitation after a stroke. Additional to these recommendations, complementary medicine (CM) utilization is common among patients with neurological conditions. CM also offers a wide range of therapies for both prevention and rehabilitation in stroke. There is limited information available on CM utilization among stroke survivors and differences to patients without former stroke diagnosis.Methods and resultsThis analysis was based on data of the 2017 National Health Interview survey (NHIS, n = 26,742; response rate 80,7%). We analyzed the prevalence of consultations among stroke patients with CM practitioners within the last 12 months and reasons for utilization. 3.1% of participants reported a stroke, individuals without a prior stroke diagnosis were more likely to have used CM in the past 12 months (31.3% without versus 28.9% with stroke). Consultations with a chiropractor and of using mind-body-medicine was higher in individuals without stroke diagnosis, while more stroke survivors had consulted a naturopath. Equal proportions had consulted a homeopath. Most common therapy approaches among stroke survivors were spiritual meditation (13.7%), progressive relaxation (5.4%), yoga (5.2%), mindfulness meditation (4.3%), mantra meditation (3.1%), guided imagery (2.6%) and tai chi (1.7%). CM use in stroke survivors was associated with female sex (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.56–2.88) and higher education (AOR = 1.94, CI = 1.42–2.65).ConclusionStroke patients were less likely to take advantage of complementary medicine than the general population. Since there are many safe and beneficial options, stroke survivors might profit from better information about the existing possibilities regarding prevention and rehabilitation.
Highlights
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) worldwide about 17.9 million deaths were related to cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases in 2019 [1] and their rates, including strokes [2], are increasing
Stroke survivors and individuals without a stroke diagnosis differed on all analyzed sociodemographic characteristics (Table 1)
The 12-month prevalence of consultations with a chiropractor and of using mind-body medicine was higher in individuals without stroke diagnosis, while more stroke survivors had consulted a naturopath and equal proportions had consulted a homeopath (Fig. 1)
Summary
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) worldwide about 17.9 million deaths were related to cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases in 2019 [1] and their rates, including strokes [2], are increasing. Additional utilization of complementary medicine (CM) might be an option to treat the prior mentioned risk factors as well [11,12,13,14,15,16] and overlaps with prevention measures [17]. While prior research focused on individual aspects of CM (e.g. like mind-body therapies) among stroke patients [20] or analyzed their utilization among neurological diseases in general (including e.g. headaches, stroke, memory loss) [18], this is the first analysis comparing CM use only in stroke and non-stroke patients. Guidelines focus on prevention of risk factors and present concepts for rehabilitation after a stroke. Additional to these recommendations, complemen‐ tary medicine (CM) utilization is common among patients with neurological conditions. There is limited information available on CM utilization among stroke survivors and differences to patients without former stroke diagnosis
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