title: Complementary and Conventional Health-care Utilization Among Young Australian Women With Urinary Incontinence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the relationship between health status and health service utilization (including conventional and complementary and alternative medicine [CAM]) accessed by women experiencing urinary incontinence (UI). Although a high number of younger women report symptoms of UI, such as leaking urine, only a small proportion seek help for these symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health is a large nationally representative study that investigates the health and well-being of women. The 2 most recent surveys (2006 and 2009) of the young cohort (women aged 28-33 and 31-36 respectively) were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The presence of UI was 8.5% in 2006 (n = 859) and 23.3% in 2009 (n = 1878), whereas the percentage of women who sought help for their UI was 18.6% (n = 160) and 2.2% (n = 182) respectively. Women with UI had poorer health compared with women without UI (P < .005), and women who sought help for their symptoms had poorer physical functioning than women who did not (P < .005). Women who sought help were greater users of conventional and CAM health services (P < .005), including a general practitioner, specialist, hospital doctor, physiotherapist, and naturopath.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  UI is relatively common in younger women. However, many do not seek help. Of the women who do seek care, a large number visit CAM professionals as well as conventional medical professionals, despite a lack of research evaluating the efficacy of CAM treatment. Research is needed to explore CAM practitioner approaches to the treatment of UI and to evaluate the efficacy of these treatments.
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), Faculty of Health, UTS, Ultimo, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: jane.frawley@uts.edu.au.
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Frawley
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), Faculty of Health, UTS, Ultimo, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sibbritt
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), Faculty of Health, UTS, Ultimo, NSW, Australia; Endeavour College of Natural Health, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Amie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Steel
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), Faculty of Health, UTS, Ultimo, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Sungwon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), Faculty of Health, UTS, Ultimo, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Jon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Adams
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014572:Urology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016387:Women's Health