title: Prevalence of visits to five types of complementary and alternative medicine practitioners by the general population: a systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To systematically review surveys of 12-month prevalence of visits to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners for five therapies: acupuncture, homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic, and medical herbalism.
  
  
  METHODS
  Studies were identified via database searches to 2011. Study quality was assessed using a six-item tool.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-one surveys across 12 countries were included. Twenty-five (61%) met four of six quality criteria. Prevalence of visits by adults were (median, range): acupuncturists 1.4% (0.2-7.5%, N = 27 surveys), homeopaths 1.5% (0.2-2.9%, N = 20 surveys), osteopaths 1.9% (0.2-4.4%, N = 9 surveys), chiropractors 7.5% (0.3-16.7, N = 33 surveys), medical herbalists 0.9% (0.3-4.7%, N = 14 surveys). Estimates were slightly lower for children and higher for older adults. There was little change over the past 15-20 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review summarises 12-month prevalence of visits to CAM practitioners in Europe, North America, Australia, East Asia, Saudi Arabia and Israel. A small but significant percentage of these general populations visit CAM practitioners each year.
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Regent Court, 30 Regent Street, Sheffield S1 4DA, UK. Electronic address: k.l.cooper@sheffield.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Katy L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: Philip E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Relton
authors.forename: Kate J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Thomas
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001208:Asia; D001315:Australia; D005060:Europe; D006705:Homeopathy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D026882:Manipulation, Chiropractic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D026301:Manipulation, Osteopathic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009656:North America; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D008517:Phytotherapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence
keywords: Acupuncture; Complementary therapies; Homeopathy; Prevalence; Systematic review