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Patterns of alternative medicine use by cancer patients
S D Begbie1, Z L Kerestes, D R Bell
1Department of Clinical Oncology, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, NSW.
Objective:
To assess the patterns of alternative medicine use in patients of a public hospital oncology unit, and to compare patients' experience of alternative with conventional medicine.
Design And Setting:
Self-administered questionnaire survey of cancer patients attending specialist consulting rooms at the Royal North Shore Hospital and the Oncology Outpatient Clinic at Port Macquarie Base Hospital during August 1995.
Participants:
507 patients attended the clinics; 335 (66%) returned questionnaires, of which 319 (62%) were sufficiently complete for analysis.
Main Outcome Measures:
Expectations of and satisfaction with both conventional and alternative treatment, use of alternative treatment, and patient characteristics associated with this use.
Results:
Expectations of and satisfaction with both conventional and alternative treatment were very high. Alternative treatments (most commonly dietary and psychological methods) were used by 21.9% of patients. Median annual cost of alternative therapy was $530, with most patients reporting "value for money". Younger age and being married were positively associated, and satisfaction with conventional treatment was negatively associated, with alternative medicine use; 40% of patients did not discuss alternative medicine with their physician.
Conclusions:
A significant proportion of cancer patients use one or more forms of alternative therapy. The use of alternative therapy may reflect on deficiencies in the current standard of care.