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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Torsten Schäfer¹, Mareike Groenewold¹, Yvonne Kohlhammer², and Britta Bücker¹. (1) Institute of Social Medicine, Lübeck University, Beckergrube 43-47, Lübeck, 23552, Germany, +49-451-7992530, torsten.schaefer@sozmed.uni-luebeck.de, (2) Institute of Epidemiology, GSF-National Research Centre for Environment and Health, Neuherberg, Neuherberg, 85764, Germany

The objective was to evaluate the patterns of use of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) in a representative adult population. A population-based survey was carried out in Luebeck / Germany using the technique of computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI). Information was obtained on demographics, health status, prevalence of CAM usage, motivation for using CAM, type of CAM and health problems for which CAM was used. 1001 adults (median age 48 years) participated (response 46.8%) and 79.6% reported a health problem. The most frequent health problems were chronic pain (45.3%), circulation problems (32.9%) and colds with fever (27.8%). Nonusers of CAM had a lower incidence of overall illness (76.6% vs. 83.5%, OR 0.65; 0.47-0.89). 42.3% of the participants used CAM. CAM users were more frequently females (72.8% vs. 55.5%, OR 2.32; 1.74-3.08) and better educated (school education >12 year, 36.6% vs. 27.9%, OR 3.25, 1.35-7.81) than nonusers. The main health problems for using CAM were to treat chronic pain (36.3%), some cases of uncomplicated colds (16.9%) and for improving general health (14.7%). Three procedures accounted for the majority of usage: acupuncture (34.5%), homeopathy (27.3%) and herbal medicine (9.7%). CAM users were mostly motivated by the wish to avoid drugs as much as possible (31.7%). 26.7% followed the recommendation of their physician and 23.9% gave unsatisfactory results of conventional medicine as reason for CAM usage. We conclude that CAM is used widely for different complaints by the general population. This frequent use of CAM has implications for the health care system and health policy.

Learning Objectives:

• to learn about the frequency of use of complementary alternative methods, determinants (type of CAM, motivation, disorders treated)and sociodemographic characteristics of CAM users from a large German population-based sample

Keywords: Epidemiology,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No