Abstract
BackgroundThe study is part of a nationwide evaluation of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in primary care in Switzerland. The Objective was to identify patients' expectations and reasons governing the choice of complementary medicine compared with conventional primary care (CONV).MethodsThe data were derived from the PEK study (Programm Evaluation Komplementärmedizin), which was conducted in 2002–2003 with 7879 adult patients and parents of 1291 underage patients, seeking either complementary (CAM) or conventional (CONV) primary care. The study was performed as a cross-sectional survey. The respondents were asked to document their (or their children's) self-perceived health status, reasons governing their choice, and treatment expectations. Physicians were practicing conventional medicine and/or complementary methods (homeopathy, anthroposophic medicine, neural therapy, and traditional Chinese medicine). Reasons governing the choice of physician were evaluated on the basis of a three-part classification (physician-related, procedure-related, and pragmatic/other reasons)Results and DiscussionPatients seeing CAM physicians tend to be younger and more often female. CAM patients referred to procedure-related reasons more frequently, whereas pragmatic reasons dominated among CONV patients. CAM respondents expected fewer adverse side effects compared to conventional care patients.ConclusionThe majority of alternative medicine users appear to have chosen CAM mainly because they wish to undergo a certain procedure; additional reasons include desire for more comprehensive treatment, and expectation of fewer side-effects.
Highlights
The study is part of a nationwide evaluation of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in primary care in Switzerland
Motives and reasons to choose a particular physicians may affect the extent of utilization of health related resources That is why we have chosen to examine whether the preferences of both adult patients and parents acting on behalf of minors differ with respect to complementary or conventional medicine Following a political discussion, the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs decided in 1998 to add five methods of complementary medicine to the benefit package of basic health insurance for a period of five years
We examined whether the preferences of adult patients and parents acting on behalf of minors differ with respect to complementary or conventional medicine
Summary
The study is part of a nationwide evaluation of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in primary care in Switzerland. Some Swiss studies show that there were more often female, with higher education, from upper middle class and aged between 30 and 50 among the CAM-users[6,12] This group generally tends to have less children, it remains unclear whether the subgroup of parents of underage patients would match the profile of a typical Swiss CAM-user in terms of choice of treatment. Because of the provisional status of coverage for CAM procedures in the health plans, a nationwide evaluation of CAM including several studies was performed [13] As part of this evaluation, our study focused on the individual reasons and motives, and main health problems for seeking complementary and conventional care. We examined whether the preferences of adult patients and parents acting on behalf of minors differ with respect to complementary or conventional medicine
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