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Measuring the effects of acupuncture and homoeopathy in general practice: An uncontrolled prospective documentation approach

BACKGROUND: Despite the increasing demand for acupuncture and homoeopathy in Germany, little is known about the effects of these treatments in routine care. We set up a pragmatic documentation study in general practice funded within the scope of project launched by a German health insurer. Patients...

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Autores principales: Güthlin, Corina, Lange, Oliver, Walach, Harald
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2004
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC395833/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15113434
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-4-6
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author Güthlin, Corina
Lange, Oliver
Walach, Harald
author_facet Güthlin, Corina
Lange, Oliver
Walach, Harald
author_sort Güthlin, Corina
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Despite the increasing demand for acupuncture and homoeopathy in Germany, little is known about the effects of these treatments in routine care. We set up a pragmatic documentation study in general practice funded within the scope of project launched by a German health insurer. Patients were followed-up for up to four years. METHODS: The aim of the project was to study the effects and benefits of acupuncture and/or homoeopathy, and to assess patient satisfaction within a prospective documentation of over 5000 acupuncture and over 900 homoeopathy patients. As data sources, we used the documentation made available by therapists on every individual visit and a standardised quality-of-life questionnaire (MOS SF-36); these were complemented by questions concerning the patient's medical history and by questions on patient satisfaction. The health insurer provided us with data on work absenteeism. RESULTS: Descriptive analyses of the main outcomes showed benefit of treatment with middle to large-sized effects for the quality of life questionnaire SF-36 and about 1 point improvement on a rating scale of effects, given by doctors. Data on the treatment and the patients' and physicians' background suggests chronically ill patients treated by fairly regular schemes. CONCLUSION: Since the results showed evidence of a subjective benefit for patients from acupuncture and homoeopathy, this may account for the increase in demand for these treatments especially when patients are chronically ill and unsatisfied with the conventional treatment given previously.
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spelling pubmed-3958332004-04-25 Measuring the effects of acupuncture and homoeopathy in general practice: An uncontrolled prospective documentation approach Güthlin, Corina Lange, Oliver Walach, Harald BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Despite the increasing demand for acupuncture and homoeopathy in Germany, little is known about the effects of these treatments in routine care. We set up a pragmatic documentation study in general practice funded within the scope of project launched by a German health insurer. Patients were followed-up for up to four years. METHODS: The aim of the project was to study the effects and benefits of acupuncture and/or homoeopathy, and to assess patient satisfaction within a prospective documentation of over 5000 acupuncture and over 900 homoeopathy patients. As data sources, we used the documentation made available by therapists on every individual visit and a standardised quality-of-life questionnaire (MOS SF-36); these were complemented by questions concerning the patient's medical history and by questions on patient satisfaction. The health insurer provided us with data on work absenteeism. RESULTS: Descriptive analyses of the main outcomes showed benefit of treatment with middle to large-sized effects for the quality of life questionnaire SF-36 and about 1 point improvement on a rating scale of effects, given by doctors. Data on the treatment and the patients' and physicians' background suggests chronically ill patients treated by fairly regular schemes. CONCLUSION: Since the results showed evidence of a subjective benefit for patients from acupuncture and homoeopathy, this may account for the increase in demand for these treatments especially when patients are chronically ill and unsatisfied with the conventional treatment given previously. BioMed Central 2004-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC395833/ /pubmed/15113434 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-4-6 Text en Copyright © 2004 Güthlin et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.
spellingShingle Research Article
Güthlin, Corina
Lange, Oliver
Walach, Harald
Measuring the effects of acupuncture and homoeopathy in general practice: An uncontrolled prospective documentation approach
title Measuring the effects of acupuncture and homoeopathy in general practice: An uncontrolled prospective documentation approach
title_full Measuring the effects of acupuncture and homoeopathy in general practice: An uncontrolled prospective documentation approach
title_fullStr Measuring the effects of acupuncture and homoeopathy in general practice: An uncontrolled prospective documentation approach
title_full_unstemmed Measuring the effects of acupuncture and homoeopathy in general practice: An uncontrolled prospective documentation approach
title_short Measuring the effects of acupuncture and homoeopathy in general practice: An uncontrolled prospective documentation approach
title_sort measuring the effects of acupuncture and homoeopathy in general practice: an uncontrolled prospective documentation approach
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC395833/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15113434
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-4-6
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