How do patients integrate complementary medicine with mainstream healthcare? A survey of patients' perspectives

Complementary Therapies in Medicine
Cathy AvilaJoanne Bradbury

Abstract

Complementary medicines (CM) are widely consumed by Australians. However, CM is not included in policy and planning of patient-centred models of healthcare. This study aimed to explore how patients themselves manage to integrate CM with mainstream healthcare. An online survey was distributed through snowball sampling via professional networks and targeted advertising in social media to Australian consumers of CM. Data were managed in Excel and analysed using descriptive statistics in IBM SPSS v23 and Stata v13. A total of 379 consumers of CM therapies or products completed the survey. The mean age was 51 years, 83% were female and 34% reported having a chronic disease. CM consumers consulted a wide range of healthcare providers. Almost all (97%) had seen a general medical practitioner (GP) within the past year. Overwhelmingly, participants (95%) reported that they themselves were the primary managers of their own healthcare, either on their own (60%) or in collaboration with a CM practitioner (19%) or GP (16%). Approximately 60% of participants reported that they freely discussed their visits to CM practitioners with their GP. Among those, however, males with chronic disease were less likely to disclose CM practitioner consulta...Continue Reading

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