Wilson Kris, Dowson Claire, Mangin Dee
University of Canterbury, Christchurch.
N Z Med J. 2007 Mar 23;120(1251):U2464.
There is little information about the use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) in New Zealand children who attend a general practitioner for intercurrent illness compared to children attending secondary care with a chronic condition where CAM use is high. This study aims to establish whether there are differences in prevalence and non-disclosure rates, information sources, and potential predictors of CAM use in these two populations of children.
A study-devised CAM-use questionnaire was administered to 50 participants recruited from general practice surgeries and 50 from a paediatric diabetes clinic.
Prevalence of lifetime CAM-use was high (70%) with no significant difference between the two populations sampled. Not disclosing CAM-use to a doctor was common (77%), with the majority unintentional (87%). Parental-use was predictive of child CAM-use (OR 4.73).
CAM-use amongst New Zealand children is higher, and disclosure rates lower, when compared to overseas populations of children. This suggests that there is greater potential for New Zealand children to be at risk of adverse events directly and through interaction with prescribed medicines. Contrary to expectations, CAM-use behaviours and disclosure rates are comparable between GP and outpatient populations--suggesting that all prescribers need to explicitly ask parents about CAM-use with their children, particularly those that report CAM-use themselves.
与患有慢性病且使用补充和替代医学（CAM）比例较高的二级医疗机构就诊儿童相比，关于新西兰因患偶发性疾病而就诊于全科医生的儿童使用CAM的信息较少。本研究旨在确定这两类儿童在CAM使用的患病率和未披露率、信息来源以及潜在预测因素方面是否存在差异。
向从全科诊所招募的50名参与者和从儿科糖尿病诊所招募的50名参与者发放了一份由研究设计的CAM使用问卷。
终生使用CAM的患病率很高（70%），在两个抽样人群之间没有显著差异。不向医生披露CAM使用情况很常见（77%），大多数是无意的（87%）。父母使用CAM可预测儿童使用CAM（比值比4.73）。
与海外儿童人群相比，新西兰儿童中CAM的使用率更高，而披露率更低。这表明新西兰儿童直接以及通过与处方药相互作用面临不良事件风险的可能性更大。与预期相反，全科医生就诊人群和门诊人群之间的CAM使用行为和披露率相当——这表明所有开处方者都需要明确询问家长其孩子使用CAM的情况，尤其是那些自己报告使用CAM的家长。
