Families' visits to practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine in a total population (the HUNT studies).
OBJECTIVE
To investigate characteristics of families with adolescent children who have visited practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).


METHODS
The Nord-Trøndelag Health Studies (HUNT) invited all inhabitants aged 13 years and older to a population-based study. The data of parents and adolescents were merged through the Norwegian family register. A family CAM visitor was a family where either the adolescent or the mother or father had visited a CAM practitioner in the previous year. The data were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression.


RESULTS
A total of 7,888 adolescents with mother and/or fathers were included. The prevalence of families visiting CAM practitioners was 19.8%. The odds of a family visiting a CAM practitioner was significantly associated (p < 0.01) with a father with poor self-reported global health (adjusted odds ratio (adjOR) 3.0, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.7-5.3), who exercised (adjOR 1.3, 1.1-1.5) or smoked daily (adjOR 0.7, 0.6-0.8). Family CAM visits were also associated with the mother having a recent health complaint (adjOR 1.4, 1.1-1.7) or having fair global health (adjOR 1.6, 1.2-2.0), or with the adolescent, mother or father having visited a general practitioner during the past year (adolescent adjOR 1.3, 1.2-1.5; mother 1.7, 1.5-2.0; father 1.4, 1.2-1.6). For family visits to a homeopath, the strongest association was the mother having visited a general practitioner (adjOR 1.9, 1.4-2.5). For visits to chiropractors the strongest association was whether the father was currently working (adjOR 2.1, 1.2-3.8).


CONCLUSIONS
The factor most strongly associated with families' visits to CAM practitioners was a father who had poor self-reported health.
Department of Public Health and General Practice, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. aslak.steinsbekk@ntnu.no
Aslak
A
Steinsbekk
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006705:Homeopathy; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012649:Self Concept; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult