title: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as part of primary health care in Germany – comparison of patients consulting general practitioners and CAM practitioners: a cross-sectional study
creator: Krug, Katja
creator: Kraus, Katharina I.
creator: Herrmann, Kathrin
creator: Joos, Stefanie
subject: ddc-610
subject: 610 Medical sciences Medicine
description: Background: In Germany, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in primary health care is offered by general practitioners (GPs) and by natural health practitioners, so called ‘Heilpraktiker’ (HPs). Considering the steadily growing number of unregulated HPs, the aim of the study was to assess characteristics of patients consulting HPs in comparison to patients consulting GPs.   Methods: In a cross-sectional study, patients of randomly selected GPs and HPs were asked to complete a questionnaire about their health care status, health care behavior, and symptoms rated on the Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile (MYMOP-D). Patient groups were compared based on health care provider (HP, GP with high use of CAM (CAM-GP), and GP with no/little use of CAM (nCAM-GP)) using Kruskal-Wallis tests and analyses of variance (ANOVA).   Results: Altogether, 567 patients (91 of 11 HPs, 223 of 15 CAM-GPs, 253 of 19 nCAM-GPs) filled in the questionnaire. Patients of HPs had a higher education level and were more often female. The most common reason for encounter among all three groups were musculoskeletal problems (30.2–31.1%). Patients seeing HPs reported more psychological (4.4% vs. 17.8%), but less respiratory problems (19.9% vs. 7.8%), and longer symptom duration (>5 years: 21.1% vs. 40.7%), than patients of nCAM-GPs.   Conclusions: The high percentage of patients with psychological illness and chronic health problems consulting HPs demonstrates the urgent need for action with regard to CAM therapy in primary care and regulation of natural health practitioners. Appropriate measures with regard to quality and patient safety should be taken given the growing numbers of HPs and the absence of a regulatory body.
publisher: BioMed Central
date: 2016
type: Article
type: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
identifier: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserverhttps://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/22039/1/12906_2016_Article_1402.pdf
identifier: DOI:
identifier: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-220399
identifier:   Krug, Katja ; Kraus, Katharina I. ; Herrmann, Kathrin ; Joos, Stefanie  (2016) Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as part of primary health care in Germany – comparison of patients consulting general practitioners and CAM practitioners: a cross-sectional study.  BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 16 (409).  pp. 1-8.  ISSN 1472-6882     
relation: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/22039/
rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights: Please see front page of the work (Sorry, Dublin Core plugin does not recognise license id)
language: eng