Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2004; 9: 15–6
The aim of this study was to determine, among patients with rheumatic diseases, the prevalence and utilisation patterns of CAM, the outcomes of CAM used, attitudes associated with CAM use and factors affecting the use of CAM.
From October 23 to November 31 2003, face-to-face structured interviews were conducted in a rheumatology hospital in Seoul. Two hundred and twenty-one patients with rheumatic diseases who visited the hospital participated.
CAM was used by 58.8% of the patients with rheumatic disease. Oriental medicine and physical therapy were the most common types of CAM used, accounting for 66.7 and 20.7%, respectively, of overall CAM usage. A total of 35.5% of CAM users were satisfied with the effects of CAM. CAM satisfiers showed their willingness to reuse and recommend CAM to others, 66.7 and 59.6%, respectively. The major providers of the CAM used were oriental medicine doctors/physicians (67.8%). Neighbourhood/family (67.7%) were the main informants. Half of CAM users were satisfied with the cost of CAM utilisation. Only income level was predictive for the use of CAM (P < 0.01).
CAM use is common in patients with rheumatic diseases. Among them, poor patients use CAM more often than others. Most CAM users did not have formal informants on CAM. Overall, the CAM users were dissatisfied with the effects of CAM. These findings support a need for outcome studies on the effectiveness of CAM in rheumatic diseases, as well as an improvement in providing patients with information on CAM usage.
This work was supported by the research fund of Hanyang University (HY-2003-S).
