School of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
J Altern Complement Med. 2010 Feb;16(2):175-82. doi: 10.1089/acm.2009.0292.
Although research evidence exists to suggest why consumers use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), there remains a need to distinguish between factors and processes involved in the initial uptake of therapies and those involved in their subsequent maintenance. We therefore conducted a qualitative study to explore and describe consumers' reasons for maintaining or stopping CAM use.
This was a qualitative study. We interviewed 46 CAM consumers and 9 CAM practitioners, in two high-street CAM clinics in the UK. The interviews were analyzed thematically using techniques from grounded theory.
Consumers described and evaluated their CAM experiences along four dimensions: interpersonal (e.g., interactions with practitioners), physical (e.g., sensations such as touch or pain during treatment), affective (e.g., empowerment), and cognitive (e.g., beliefs about treatment). They evaluated their experiences in relation to their individual needs and expectations; financial considerations could limit maintenance of CAM use. Practitioners emphasized the effectiveness of treatment and themselves as contributing to consumers maintaining treatment, and recognized the role of financial considerations in decisions to stop CAM use.
This study suggests that experiences of conventional medicine are of limited importance after the decision to initiate CAM. Experiences of CAM were foremost in our consumers' decisions to maintain or stop specific CAM therapies. Maintenance of CAM could occur even if consumers' experiences were not entirely positive. Our findings provide novel, systematic insights that will be of particular interest to practitioners who want to support consumers as they decide whether to maintain CAM use.
尽管有研究证据表明消费者为何使用补充和替代医学（CAM），但仍有必要区分初始接受治疗的因素和过程与随后维持治疗的因素和过程。因此，我们进行了一项定性研究，以探讨和描述消费者维持或停止 CAM 使用的原因。
这是一项定性研究。我们在英国两家高街 CAM 诊所采访了 46 名 CAM 消费者和 9 名 CAM 从业者。使用扎根理论的技术对访谈进行了主题分析。
消费者沿着四个维度描述和评估他们的 CAM 体验：人际（例如，与从业者的互动）、身体（例如，治疗过程中的感觉，如触摸或疼痛）、情感（例如，赋权）和认知（例如，对治疗的信念）。他们根据个人需求和期望来评估自己的体验；财务考虑可能会限制 CAM 使用的维持。从业者强调治疗的有效性和自己对消费者维持治疗的贡献，并认识到财务考虑在决定停止 CAM 使用中的作用。
本研究表明，在决定开始 CAM 后，常规医学的体验意义有限。CAM 的体验是我们的消费者决定维持或停止特定 CAM 疗法的首要考虑因素。即使消费者的体验并非完全正面，CAM 的维持也可能发生。我们的研究结果提供了新颖的、系统的见解，对于那些希望支持消费者决定是否维持 CAM 使用的从业者来说将特别感兴趣。
