The National Research
Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NAFKAM), Department of
Community Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic
University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2015, 15:275
doi:10.1186/s12906-015-0782-5
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/15/275
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/15/275
| Received: | 24 April 2015 |
| Accepted: | 16 July 2015 |
| Published: | 13 August 2015 |
© 2015 Jacobsen et al.
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Abstract
Background
Over the recent decades complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use within and
outside of the public health care system in Norway has increased. The aim of this
study is to describe to what extent CAM is offered in Norwegian hospitals in 2013
and investigate possible changes since 2008.
Methods
In January 2013 a one-page questionnaire was sent to the medical director of all included
hospitals (n = 80). He/she was asked to report whether or not one or more specific CAM therapies
were offered in the hospital. Fifty-nine (73.8 %) hospitals responded and form the
basis for the analyses.
Results
CAM was offered in 64.4 % of the responding hospitals. No major differences were found
between public and private, or between somatic and psychiatric, hospitals. Acupuncture
was the most frequent CAM method offered, followed by art- and expression therapy
and massage.
The proportion of hospitals offering CAM has increased from 50.5 % in 2008 to 64.4 %
in 2013 (p = 0.089). The largest increase was found in psychiatric hospitals where 76.5 % of
hospitals offered CAM in 2013 compared to 28.6 % in 2008 (p = 0.003). A small decrease was found in the proportion of hospitals offering acupuncture
between 2008 (41.4 %) and 2013 (37.3 %).
Conclusions
A majority of Norwegian hospitals offer some sort of CAM. The largest increase since
2008 was found in psychiatric hospitals. Psychiatric hospitals seem to have established
a practice of offering CAM to their patients similar to the practice in somatic hospitals.
This could indicate a shift in the attitude with regard to CAM in psychiatric hospitals.