The use of alternative health care practitioners has gained greater importance because of rising costs of health care and concerns that some forms of alternative therapy may be harmful to patients. Data from the 1998/99 Canadian National Population Health Survey are used to describe factors associated with the use of alternative practitioners. The analysis is based on a sub-sample of 14,150 respondents aged 18 who represented 22.5 million adults. Bootstrap procedures were used to obtain precise variance estimates. Logistic regression analysis was used to model the likelihood of using alternative practitioners and the association between alternative practitioner use and selected health behaviour and health care utilisation outcomes. About 17% of Canadian adults (3.8 million) used alternative therapy in the past year. In an adjusted logistic regression model, female sex, ages 25 to 64, residence in western Canada, college/university education, number of chronic diseases, higher income, perceived unmet health needs and a high index on self-care were statistically significant predictors of use. Although there were some differences in conventional health care utilisation favouring higher use by alternative practitioner users, there were no instances in which users of alternative practitioners used fewer conventional health care resources. The overall use of alternative practitioners in Canada is half the rate reported in US studies. This difference may be attributable to methodological differences in the definition of alternative therapy.
Learning Objectives: Objectives: After the session, participants will be able to: 1. Identify factors associated with the use of alternative practitioners. 2. Describe the association between alternative practitioner use, preventive health and health care utilisation.
Keywords: Alternative Medicine/Therapies, Health Care Utilization
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.