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eCAM Advance Access originally published online on October 31, 2006
eCAM 2007 4(2):251-255; doi:10.1093/ecam/nel076
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© 2006 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Are Users of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Sicker than Non-Users?

Amir Shmueli1 and Judith Shuval2

1The Hebrew University and the Gertner Institute and 2The Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel

Higher utilization of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), both in cross-sections and over time, is commonly related to better socioeconomic status and to increased dissatisfaction with conventional medicine and its values. Little is known about health differences between users and non-users of CAM. The objective of the paper is to explore the difference in health measured by the SF-36 instrument between users and non-users of CAM, and to estimate the relative importance of the SF-36 health domains scales to the likelihood of consulting CAM providers. Interviews were used to collect information from a sample of 2000 persons in 1993 and 2500 persons in 2000, representing the Israeli Jewish urban population aged 45–75 in those years. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were used to explore the above associations. The results show that while users of CAM enjoy higher socioeconomic status and younger age, they tend to report worse health than non-users on the eight SF-36 health domains scales in both years. However, controlling for personal characteristics, lower scores on the bodily pain, role-emotional and vitality scales are related to greater likelihood of CAM use in 2000. In 1993, no scale had a significant adjusted association with the use of CAM. The conclusions are that CAM users tend to report worse health. With CAM becoming a mainstream, though somewhat luxurious, medical practice, pain and affective-emotional distress are the main drivers of CAM use.

Keywords: CAM – Israel – logistic regression – SF-36

For reprints and all correspondence: Amir Shmueli, Department of Health Management, The Hebrew University, PO Box 12272, Jerusalem, Israel. Tel: +972-2-6758514; Fax: +972-2-6435083; E-mail: ashmueli{at}md2.huji.ac.il

Received December 7, 2005; accepted September 25, 2006


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