Dataset Information

Health care utilization among complementary and alternative medicine users in a large military cohort.

ABSTRACT: Complementary and Alternative Medicine use and how it impacts health care utilization in the United States Military is not well documented. Using data from the Millennium Cohort Study we describe the characteristics of CAM users in a large military population and document their health care needs over a 12-month period. The aim of this study was to determine if CAM users are requiring more physician-based medical services than users of conventional medicine.Inpatient and outpatient medical services were documented over a 12-month period for 44,287 participants from the Millennium Cohort Study. Equal access to medical services was available to anyone needing medical care during this study period. The number and types of medical visits were compared between CAM and non-CAM users. Chi square test and multivariable logistic regression was applied for the analysis.Of the 44,287 participants, 39% reported using at least one CAM therapy, and 61% reported not using any CAM therapies. Those individuals reporting CAM use accounted for 45.1% of outpatient care and 44.8% of inpatient care. Individuals reporting one or more health conditions were 15% more likely to report CAM use than non-CAM users and 19% more likely to report CAM use if reporting one or more health symptoms compared to non-CAM users. The unadjusted odds ratio for hospitalizations in CAM users compared to non-CAM users was 1.29 (95% CI: 1.16-1.43). The mean number of days receiving outpatient care for CAM users was 7.0 days and 5.9 days for non-CAM users (p < 0.001).Our study found those who report CAM use were requiring more physician-based medical services than users of conventional medicine. This appears to be primarily the result of an increase in the number of health conditions and symptoms reported by CAM users.

SUBMITTER: White MR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3083384 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Health care utilization among complementary and alternative medicine users in a large military cohort.

White Martin R MR Jacobson Isabel G IG Smith Besa B Wells Timothy S TS Gackstetter Gary D GD Boyko Edward J EJ Smith Tyler C TC

BMC complementary and alternative medicine 20110411

<h4>Background</h4>Complementary and Alternative Medicine use and how it impacts health care utilization in the United States Military is not well documented. Using data from the Millennium Cohort Study we describe the characteristics of CAM users in a large military population and document their health care needs over a 12-month period. The aim of this study was to determine if CAM users are requiring more physician-based medical services than users of conventional medicine.<h4>Methods</h4>Inpa ...[more]

PMID: 21481260

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Project description:BackgroundCustomers' expectations and satisfaction are critical to ensure a more effective role of the community pharmacists in promoting the safe use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). The aim of this study is to examine the perceptions and practices of customers buying their CAM products from pharmacies and explore their satisfaction with CAM-related services offered by the community pharmacists in Lebanon.MethodsA national cross-sectional study was conducted among users of CAM (age > =18 years) who obtained their CAM from community pharmacies in Lebanon (n = 832). Within the proximity of the pharmacy, subjects were invited to complete a multi-component questionnaire. The latter consisted of four sections related to CAM: general beliefs, perception of pharmacists' role, practices, satisfaction with services offered by the pharmacists. In addition, the questionnaire included questions about sociodemographic characteristics of participants.ResultsThe majority of participants agreed to an active role of the pharmacists' in guiding CAM use, however over half of the participants (61.3%) did not agree that the pharmacist is more knowledgeable in this field than other healthcare providers. As for practices, one in two surveyed customers (47%) did not always give feedback to their pharmacists about the outcomes after using CAM, 20% did not often ask the pharmacists about the safe and effective mode of use of the products and 28.1% did not discuss their medical history. For services offered by the pharmacist, the majority of participants reported receiving good education about the CAM product (87.1%), its side effects (87.1%) and mode of use (93.4%), while significant proportions of participants reported that pharmacists were not asking questions about their medical history before dispensing CAM products (22%) nor were they providing information on CAM-drug interactions (30%).ConclusionsThe results of this study highlighted important gaps between the perceptions of customers and the services they received from the pharmacists about CAM use. These findings could be used by concerned stakeholders, including public health authorities and educational bodies, to develop evidence-based interventions aimed at promoting the role of pharmacists in ensuring a safe and effective CAM use Lebanon.

Project description:BACKGROUND:It is well established that Ebola Survivors experience a myriad of physical and psychological sequelae. However, little is known about how they seek care to address their health needs. Our study determines the current healthcare seeking behaviour among Ebola survivors and determines the prevalence, pattern of use and correlates of traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) use among Ebola survivors in Sierra Leone. METHODS:We conducted a nationwide questionnaire survey among a cross-sectional sample of Ebola Survivors in Sierra Leone between January and August 2018. We employed descriptive statistics, chi-square test, Fisher exact two-tailed test and backward stepwise binary regression analysis for data analysis. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS:Ebola Survivors who participated in our study (n = 358), visited a healthcare provider (n = 308, 86.0%), self-medicated with conventional medicines (n = 255, 71.2%) and visited a private pharmacy outlet (n = 141, 39.4%). Survivors also self-medicated with T&CM products (n = 107, 29.9%), concurrently self-medicated with conventional and T&CM products (n = 62, 17.3%), and visited a T&CM practitioner (n = 41, 11.5%). Almost half of (n = 163, 45.5%) Ebola survivors reported using T&CM treatments for post ebola related symptoms and non-Ebola related symptoms since their discharge from an Ebola treatment centre. Ebola survivors who considered their health to be fair or poor (AOR = 4.08; 95%CI: 2.22-7.50; p<0.01), presented with arthralgia (AOR = 2.52; 95%CI: 1.11-5.69, p = 0.026) and were discharged three years or less (AOR = 3.14; 95%CI: 1.13-8.73, p = 0.028) were more likely to use T&CM. Family (n = 101,62.0%) and friends (n = 38,23.3%) were the common sources of T&CM information. Abdominal pain (n = 49, 30.1%) followed by joint pain (n = 46, 28.2%) and back pain (n = 43, 26.4%) were the most cited post-Ebola indications for T&CM use. More than three-quarters of T&CM users (n = 135, 82.8%) failed to disclose their use of T&CM to their healthcare providers. CONCLUSION:Ebola survivors in Sierra Leone employ a myriad of healthcare options including T&CM in addressing their healthcare needs. Researchers, health policy makers and healthcare providers should be aware of the substantial role of T&CM in the health seeking of survivors, and this topic that should be factored into future research, policy formulation and implementation as well as routine practice regarding Ebola survivors.

Project description:Evidence-based practice (EBP) has become an important competency in many allied and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) health care practitioners' professional standards of proficiency.To compliment an EBP course for allied health care professionals and CAM practitioners, we undertook a questionnaire survey to assess learning needs. We developed a questionnaire to measure allied health care professionals and CAM practitioners' basic knowledge, skills and beliefs concerning the main principles of EBP. The questionnaires were administered to all attendees of one-day EBP workshops.During 2004-5 we surveyed 193 allied health care professionals and CAM practitioners who attended one-day EBP courses prior to commencement of teaching. Of the respondents 121 (62.7%) were allied health care professionals and 65 (33.7%) practitioners stated that they work in the CAM field Our survey found that the majority of the respondents had not previously attended a literature appraisal skills workshop (87.3%) or received formal training in research methods (69.9%), epidemiology (91.2%) or statistics (80.8%). Furthermore, 67.1% of practitioners specified that they felt that they had not had adequate training in EBM and they identified that they needed more training and education in the principles of EBM (86.7%). Differences in knowledge and beliefs concerning EBP amongst allied and CAM practitioners were found and length of time since qualification was also found to be an important factor in practitioner's beliefs. More CAM practitioners compared to allied health professionals accessed educational literature via the Internet (95.3% v 68.1%, p = 0.008). Whilst, practitioners with more than 11 years experience felt that original research papers were far more confusing (p = 0.02) than their less experienced colleagues.The results demonstrate that practitioner's learning needs do vary according to the type of profession, time since graduation and prior research experience. Our survey findings are exploratory and will benefit from further replication, however, we do believe that they warrant consideration by allied health care and CAM tutors and trainers when planning EBP teaching curricula as it is important to tailor teaching to meet the needs of specific subgroups of trainees to ensure that specific learning needs are met.

Dataset Information

Health care utilization among complementary and alternative medicine users in a large military cohort.

Publications

Health care utilization among complementary and alternative medicine users in a large military cohort.

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