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Wednesday 7 September 2016

Usage of complementary medicine in Switzerland: Results of the Swiss health survey 2012 and development since 2007

PLoS ONE
Volume 10, Issue 10, 29 October 2015, Article number e0141985
Open Access

Correction: Usage of Complementary Medicine in Switzerland: Results of the Swiss Health Survey 2012 and Development Since 2007
Sabine D. Klein, Loredana Torchetti, Martin Frei-Erb, and Ursula WolfCopyright and License information ►This corrects the article "Usage of Complementary Medicine in Switzerland: Results of the Swiss Health Survey 2012 and Development Since 2007" in volume 10, e0141985.
Table 3
Table 3
Logistic regression model: usage of CM in the last 12 months (Swiss Health Survey 2012).
Table 4
Table 4
Logistic regression model: Holding a supplemental health insurance for CM (Swiss Health Survey 2012).

Reference
1. Klein SD, Torchetti L, Frei-Erb M, Wolf U (2015) Usage of Complementary Medicine in Switzerland: Results of the Swiss Health Survey 2012 and Development Since 2007. PLoS ONE 10(10): e0141985 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0141985 [PMC free article] [PubMed]

There are errors in the column labeled “Unweighted number of respondents” in both Tables ​Tables33 and ​and4.4. Please view the correct Tables ​Tables33 and ​and44 here.

Institute of Complementary Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

Abstract

Background Complementary medicine (CM) is popular in Switzerland. Several CM methods (traditional Chinese medicine/acupuncture, homeopathy, anthroposophic medicine, neural therapy, and herbal medicine) are currently covered by the mandatory basic health insurance when performed by a certified physician. Treatments by non-medical therapists are partially covered by a supplemental and optional health insurance. In this study, we investigated the frequency of CM use including the evolvement over time, the most popular methods, and the user profile. Methods Data of the Swiss Health Surveys 2007 and 2012 were used. In 2007 and 2012, a population of 14,432 and 18,357, respectively, aged 15 years or older answered the written questionnaire. A set of questions queried about the frequency of use of various CM methods within the last 12 months before the survey. Proportions of usage and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for these methods and CM in general. Users and non-users of CM were compared using logistic regression models. Results The most popular methods in 2012 were homeopathy, naturopathy, osteopathy, herbal medicine, and acupuncture. The average number of treatments within the 12 months preceding the survey ranged from 3 for homeopathy to 6 for acupuncture. 25.0% of the population at the age of 15 and older had used at least one CM method in the previous 12 months. People with a chronic illness or a poor self-perceived health status were more likely to use CM. Similar to other countries, women, people of middle age, and those with higher education were more likely to use CM. 59.9%of the adult population had a supplemental health insurance that partly covered CM treatments. Conclusions Usage of CM in Switzerland remained unchanged between 2007 and 2012. The user profile in Switzerland was similar to other countries, such as Germany, United Kingdom, United States or Australia. © 2015 Klein et al.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Indexed keywords

EMTREE medical terms: acupuncture; adolescent; adult; alternative medicine; Article; Australia; chronic disease; controlled study; education; female; Germany; health insurance; health survey; herbal medicine; homeopathy; human; logistic regression analysis; male; osteopathic medicine; questionnaire; Switzerland; United Kingdom; United States
ISSN: 19326203 CODEN: POLNCSource Type: Journal Original language: English
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141985Document Type: Article
Publisher: Public Library of Science

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