Volume 23, Issue 5, October 2015, Pages 699–704
Highlights
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- Approximately 3 in 4 young and mid-aged Australian women use self-prescribed CAM.
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- Use of herbal medicine was higher in mid-aged women, compared to young women.
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- There was a substantial increase over three years in the use of vitamins/minerals.
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- There was a considerable decline over three years in use of aromatherapy oils.
Abstract
Background
Complementary
and alternative medicine (CAM) use is increasingly popular amongst
general populations around the world with women constituting substantial
CAM users. However, self-prescribed CAM use does raise potential safety
concerns and so it is important to identify those risk factors
associated with self-prescribed CAM use.
Methods
Data
was obtained from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health
(ALSWH). Longitudinal data analyses were conducted on questionnaire data
from the 1973–78 cohort (n = 9,145) and the 1946–51 cohort (n = 10,638), collected over the period 2006–2010.
Results
In
the 1973–78 cohort, use of self-prescribed CAM was 73.2% in 2006 and
75.3% in 2009. For the 1946–51 cohort, use of self-prescribed CAM was
73.9% in 2007 and 74.7% in 2010. There were similar levels of use of
individual self-prescribed CAM, with the exception that the use of
herbal medicine was much higher among the 1946–51 cohort (20% vs. 27%).
There was a substantial increase over three years in the use of
vitamins/minerals in both cohorts (21% and 19%, respectively). In
contrast, there was a considerable decline over three years in use of
aromatherapy oils in both cohorts (34% and 28%, respectively).
Conclusion
Self-prescribed
CAM use is popular amongst women in Australia and it is important that
conventional practitioners providing women’s health care be cognizant of
such use amongst their patients. In order to ensure effective practice,
there is a need for further research to explore women’s decision-making
and experiences around self-prescribed CAM use.
Keywords
- Complementary and alternative medicine;
- Self-prescription;
- Longitudinal analysis;
- Women
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