and from
http://134.174.17.106/news/releases/1_05CAM.html
Contact:
Judith Montminy, Harvard Medical School, 617-432-0442 (public_affairs@hms.harvard.edu)
Complementary & Alternative Medicine Use By One Third
Of U.S. Adults Unchanged From 1997
Steady
Five-Year Prevalence Points To Need For More Rigorous
Evaluation
BOSTON,
MA--January 12, 2005--In a comparison of complementary and
alternative medicine (CAM) use by adults in 1997 and 2002,
researchers from Harvard Medical School found more than one
in three U.S. adults (36.5 and 35.0 percent, respectively)
used at least one form of CAM.
The continued widespread use of individual and multiple CAM
therapies underscores the need to rigorously evaluate the
safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of these
approaches, according to the study's lead author Hilary
Tindle, Harvard Medical School (HMS) research fellow, and
co-author David Eisenberg, director of the Division for
Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative
Medical Therapies and the Osher Institute at HMS.
The study results appear in the January/February issue of
the medical journal Alternative
Therapies in Health and Medicine.
The study compared results of the National Health Interview
Survey in 2002 and a survey conducted by researchers at HMS
(Eisenberg et al.) in 1997. The two surveys were similar
but not identical. Prior to this study, there had been no
head-to-head comparison using a common definition of CAM.
"Our research over the past 14 years has shown a consistent
level of usage by adult Americans," said Dr. Eisenberg.
"While there have been a few notable changes in which CAM
therapies people are using, the overall number of adults
employing some type of CAM has remained remarkably
consistent since we began our surveys in 1990. This says to
us that these therapies are part of the fabric of modern
day health care, and that we need to do more research on
their safety and effectiveness just as we would with any
other therapeutic options," concludes Eisenberg.
Over the five-year period between the two most recent
surveys, the total number of Americans using any CAM
therapy remained fairly stable at 72 million. However,
there were changes in the choice of CAM therapies used.
The largest change was a 50 percent jump in the use of
herbal supplements, growing over the five years from 12.1
percent of adults reporting usage in 1997 to 18.6 percent
-- or 38 million adults -- in 2002. The practice of yoga
increased 40 percent over the same period, growing from 3.7
percent in 1997 to 5.1 percent-- over 10 million adults--
in 2002.
Use of CAM therapies such as acupuncture, biofeedback,
energy healing, and hypnosis remained essentially unchanged
between 1997 and 2002, while the use of homeopathy,
high-dose vitamins, chiropractic, and massage therapy
declined slightly. Since many CAM therapies are paid
out-of-pocket by consumers, the authors suggest that some
of these declines may be due, at least in part, to a
downturn in the U.S. economy from 1997 to 2002.
The ways in which several CAM therapies are used also
appear to have changed. For example, only 5 percent of
people who used herbs saw a practitioner of herbal medicine
in 2002, compared to 15 percent in 1997. "Such changes are
important considering that other research has shown that 60
to 70 percent of patients who use CAM therapies do not
disclose it to their physician," says lead author Dr.
Tindle. "This is especially critical as more becomes known
about the adverse effects associated with individual
dietary supplements as well as their interactions with
prescription drugs".
Despite variability seen in previously published reports
about overall CAM use, the authors conclude the use of CAM
by one third of U.S. adults from 1997 to 2002 appears to
have been steady, reconfirming results from the first
national survey in 1990.
This work was made possible in part by grants from the
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
and by private foundation grants: Horton Family Fund;
Seattle Foundation; John E. Fetzer Institute; American
Society of Actuaries; Friends of Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center; Kenneth J. Germeshausen Foundation; and the
J.E. and Z.B. Butler Foundation.