摘要：Objectives . This study was undertaken to establish the health status of users of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) services in England. Methods . A postal questionnaire (response rate: 64%) covering long-standing illness, use of conventional medical and CAM services, and the United Kingdom Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) was sent to more than 14 000 adults in 4 counties. Results . Sixty percent of CAM users reported having a chronic illness or disability; back pain and bowel problems were the conditions most commonly reported. Regardless of whether chronic illness was reported, CAM users reported poorer health than nonusers, particularly in the dimensions of pain and physical disability, and made more visits to general practitioners. Conclusions . In England, users of CAM services have poorer physical health than nonusers and make more frequent use of conventional medical services. In the United States, an estimated 629 million visits were made in 1997 to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners. This estimate exceeded the total visits to all US primary health care physicians 1 and represented a 47.3% increase in total visits from 1990. 1, 2 Between 1990 and 1997, expenditures for CAM increased 45.2% and were conservatively estimated at US $21.2 billion in 1997. 1 Complementary medicine is used by 20%–50% of the population in many European nations 3 and by 48% of the population in Australia. 4 In the United Kingdom (UK), Thomas et al. 5 surveyed 5010 individuals older than 18 years who were selected from a geographically stratified random sample of 12 English health authority populations. Their results suggested that approximately 10.6% of the adult English population consult a practitioner of 1 of 6 established CAM therapies each year. This study also suggested that as many as half of the UK population could be users of some form of CAM in their lifetimes, whether through over-the-counter purchases or consultations with CAM practitioners. In 1997, data on health, health-related lifestyles, and use of medical services, including those of CAM practitioners, 6 were gathered in a large survey of persons aged 18–64 years who were living in southeast England. We used these survey data to examine the health and demographic profiles of users of CAM practitioner services.
