Are patients who use alternative medicine dissatisfied with orthodox medicine?
Approximately 45% of asthmatic families and 47% of non-asthmatic families had consulted an alternative-medicine practitioner at some time. The most popular form of alternative medicine was chiropractic (21.1% and 26.4%, respectively), followed by homoeopathy/naturopathy (18.8% and 12.7%, respectively), acupuncture (9.4% and 10.9%, respectively), and herbal medicine (4.7% and 6.4%, respectively), while the remainder (20.3% and 11.8% respectively) was distributed among iridology, osteopathy, hypnosis, faith healing and megavitamin therapy. More families were satisfied with orthodox medicine (87.1% and 93.6%, respectively) than with alternative medicine (84.2% and 75.1%, respectively). Crosstabulation analysis of pooled data both from asthma and from non-asthma groups showed that 76.4% were satisfied both with orthodox and with alternative medicine, and 16.4% were satisfied with orthodox, but not with alternative, medicine. In contrast, only 2.7% were dissatisfied with orthodox medicine and satisfied with alternative medicine (chi2 = 9.33; P less than 0.01). These findings do not support the view that patients who use alternative medicine are those who are disgruntled with orthodox medicine.
D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000628:therapy; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002684:Chiropractic; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006705:Homeopathy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013511:Minor Surgical Procedures; D009324:Naturopathy; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors