Health service use amongst users of complementary and alternative medicine

To describe people using complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) and to compare their utilisation of health services with non-CAM users.

The data comes from the New Zealand Health Survey 2002/2003 which sampled 12,529 people, aged 15 and older, [corrected] living in private dwellings in New Zealand. Participants self-reported socio-demographic details, health status, and health service use. Proportions (and 95% confidence intervals) of people using each CAM service are presented. CAM and non-CAM users are compared across a range of factors using regression, logistic regression or multinomial regression so that the different age and sex structure in the two groups can be accounted for.

CAM users are more likely to be middle-aged, rich, well-educated, of European descent and female. They are more likely to have hard to treat conditions and to be less well but actively try to maintain their health. They utilise more health services and are more likely to seek information about their health and medicines.