Developing and evaluating complementary therapy services: part 2. Examining the effects of treatment on health status

To investigate the effect on patient health status of an outpatient service providing acupuncture, osteopathy, and homeopathy.

Pragmatic quasiexperimental design with waiting-list control group.

A district general hospital in the United Kingdom.

All patients referred to the service during the study period.

The Short Form 36-Item Health Status Survey (SF-36).

With the exception of the Physical Functioning scale, statistical differences in scores were found between the treatment and control group on all SF-36 scales. Sensitivity analysis designed to deal with nonresponse supports the robustness of the results.

This study provides evidence for the effectiveness of an outpatient acupuncture, osteopathy and homeopathy service in terms of benefits to patients' health status.