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Consultations with complementary and alternative medicine practitioners by older Australians: results from a national survey

BACKGROUND: The use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) and CAM practitioners is common, most frequently for the management of musculoskeletal conditions. Knowledge is limited about the use of CAM practitioners by older people, and specifically those with other long term or chronic cond...

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Autores principales: Yen, Laurann, Jowsey, Tanisha, McRae, Ian S
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3616991/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23548137
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6882-13-73
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author Yen, Laurann
Jowsey, Tanisha
McRae, Ian S
author_facet Yen, Laurann
Jowsey, Tanisha
McRae, Ian S
author_sort Yen, Laurann
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) and CAM practitioners is common, most frequently for the management of musculoskeletal conditions. Knowledge is limited about the use of CAM practitioners by older people, and specifically those with other long term or chronic conditions. METHODS: In 2011 we conducted an Australia wide survey targeting older adults aged over 50 years (n = 2540). Participants were asked to identify their chronic conditions, and from which health professionals they had ‘received advice or treatment from in the last 3 months’, including ‘complementary health practitioners, e.g. naturopath’. Descriptive analyses were undertaken using SPSS and STATA software. RESULTS: Overall, 8.8% of respondents reported seeing a CAM practitioner in the past three months, 12.1% of women and 3.9% of men; the vast majority also consulting medical practitioners in the same period. Respondents were more likely to report consulting a CAM practitioner if they had musculoskeletal conditions (osteoporosis, arthritis), pain, or depression/anxiety. Respondents with diabetes, hypertension and asthma were least likely to report consulting a CAM practitioner. Those over 80 reported lower use of CAM practitioners than younger respondents. CAM practitioner use in a general older population was not associated with the number of chronic conditions reported, or with the socio-economic level of residence of the respondent. CONCLUSION: Substantial numbers of older Australians with chronic conditions seek advice from CAM practitioners, particularly those with pain related conditions, but less often with conditions where there are clear treatment guidelines using conventional medicine, such as with diabetes, hypertension and asthma. Given the policy emphasis on better coordination of care for people with chronic conditions, these findings point to the importance of communication and integration of health services and suggest that the concept of the ‘treating team’ needs a broad interpretation.
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spelling pubmed-36169912013-04-05 Consultations with complementary and alternative medicine practitioners by older Australians: results from a national survey Yen, Laurann Jowsey, Tanisha McRae, Ian S BMC Complement Altern Med Research Article BACKGROUND: The use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) and CAM practitioners is common, most frequently for the management of musculoskeletal conditions. Knowledge is limited about the use of CAM practitioners by older people, and specifically those with other long term or chronic conditions. METHODS: In 2011 we conducted an Australia wide survey targeting older adults aged over 50 years (n = 2540). Participants were asked to identify their chronic conditions, and from which health professionals they had ‘received advice or treatment from in the last 3 months’, including ‘complementary health practitioners, e.g. naturopath’. Descriptive analyses were undertaken using SPSS and STATA software. RESULTS: Overall, 8.8% of respondents reported seeing a CAM practitioner in the past three months, 12.1% of women and 3.9% of men; the vast majority also consulting medical practitioners in the same period. Respondents were more likely to report consulting a CAM practitioner if they had musculoskeletal conditions (osteoporosis, arthritis), pain, or depression/anxiety. Respondents with diabetes, hypertension and asthma were least likely to report consulting a CAM practitioner. Those over 80 reported lower use of CAM practitioners than younger respondents. CAM practitioner use in a general older population was not associated with the number of chronic conditions reported, or with the socio-economic level of residence of the respondent. CONCLUSION: Substantial numbers of older Australians with chronic conditions seek advice from CAM practitioners, particularly those with pain related conditions, but less often with conditions where there are clear treatment guidelines using conventional medicine, such as with diabetes, hypertension and asthma. Given the policy emphasis on better coordination of care for people with chronic conditions, these findings point to the importance of communication and integration of health services and suggest that the concept of the ‘treating team’ needs a broad interpretation. BioMed Central 2013-04-02 /pmc/articles/PMC3616991/ /pubmed/23548137 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6882-13-73 Text en Copyright © 2013 Yen et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Yen, Laurann
Jowsey, Tanisha
McRae, Ian S
Consultations with complementary and alternative medicine practitioners by older Australians: results from a national survey
title Consultations with complementary and alternative medicine practitioners by older Australians: results from a national survey
title_full Consultations with complementary and alternative medicine practitioners by older Australians: results from a national survey
title_fullStr Consultations with complementary and alternative medicine practitioners by older Australians: results from a national survey
title_full_unstemmed Consultations with complementary and alternative medicine practitioners by older Australians: results from a national survey
title_short Consultations with complementary and alternative medicine practitioners by older Australians: results from a national survey
title_sort consultations with complementary and alternative medicine practitioners by older australians: results from a national survey
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3616991/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23548137
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6882-13-73
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