Pharmacists' perceptions of alternative health approaches--a comparison between U.S. and British pharmacists

A survey was sent to 1,000 United States (U.S.) pharmacists (19.7% responded) and 750 British pharmacists (63.0% responded) to assess their perceived knowledge, perceived usefulness, referrals, and utilization of alternative health approaches (AHA). More than 50% of U.S. and British citizens had 'never heard of' or 'only heard of' about half of the 21 AHA assessed. Acupuncture was the AHA felt to be most useful by the majority of pharmacists, both in the U.S. (83.8%) and in Britain (91.0%). Osteopathy (38.6%) and chiropractic (33.5%) were most often referrals by U.S. pharmacists, whereas homeopathy (14.7%) and osteopathy (14.5%) were most often referrals by British pharmacists. The most utilized AHAs were osteopathy (21.8%) and chiropractic (19.3%) by U.S. pharmacists and homeopathy (10.1%) and herbal medicine (6.0%) by British pharmacists. Differences exist in the perceived knowledge, perception of usefulness, referrals, and utilization of AHAs between U.S. and British pharmacists. It is quite likely that the low-response rates, particularly among the U.S. pharmacists, may mask even greater ignorance about AHAs. It may also underestimate the proportion of pharmacists who are of the view that AHAs are useless and not worthy of answering questions about.