Büssing Arndt, Ostermann Thomas, Heusser Peter, Matthiessen Peter F
Quality of Life, Spirituality and Coping, Center for Integrative Medicine, Faculty of Health, University of Witten/Herdecke, Gerhard-Kienle-Weg 4, 58313 Herdecke, Germany.
Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Xue Bao. 2011 Aug;9(8):847-56.
The manifold studies on the usage of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) indicate that its utilization differs with respect to socio-cultural background, gender, age and underlying disease. This study intended to analyze the usage of specific CAM practices among a population of older German adults with health insurance coverage.
Data of 5 830 older individuals who participated in an anonymous cross sectional survey among German insurance beneficiaries were analyzed with respect to usage of CAM treatments applied by medical doctors or non-medical practitioners within the last 5 years.
The most frequently used approaches were acupuncture/traditional Chinese medicine (21%), homeopathy (21%), movement therapies/physical exercises (19%), osteopathy/chiropractic (12%), herbs/phytotherapy (7%), diets/specific food recommendations (6%) and foot reflexology (5%). Anthroposophic medicine was used only to a minor degree. Acupuncture and homeopathy users were likely to choose more than one CAM treatment simultaneously, particularly the combination of homeopathy and acupuncture. Moreover, this study can confirm significant differences between women and men in the use of the main relevant CAM interventions.
The relative proportion of acupuncture usage was similar to homeopathy, which is an alternative whole medical system originating from Western Europe. This means that an Eastern alternative system is established also in Germany. In several cases not only one CAM treatment was used but distinct combinations existed (particularly homeopathy and acupuncture); thus one should be cautious to draw predictive conclusions from studies with broad and unspecific CAM categories, for among them there are several therapies which should not be regarded as CAM.
关于补充和替代医学（CAM）使用情况的众多研究表明，其使用情况因社会文化背景、性别、年龄和基础疾病而异。本研究旨在分析在有健康保险的德国老年人群体中特定补充和替代医学实践的使用情况。
对5830名参与德国保险受益人的匿名横断面调查的老年人的数据进行分析，了解他们在过去5年中接受医生或非医学从业者应用的补充和替代医学治疗的使用情况。
最常用的方法是针灸/传统中医（21%）、顺势疗法（21%）、运动疗法/体育锻炼（19%）、整骨疗法/脊椎按摩疗法（12%）、草药/植物疗法（7%）、饮食/特定食物建议（6%）和足部反射疗法（5%）。人智学医学的使用程度较低。针灸和顺势疗法使用者可能会同时选择多种补充和替代医学治疗，尤其是顺势疗法和针灸的组合。此外，本研究证实了在主要相关补充和替代医学干预措施的使用上，男性和女性之间存在显著差异。
针灸的使用比例与顺势疗法相似，顺势疗法是一种源自西欧的替代医学体系。这意味着在德国也建立了一种东方替代医学体系。在几种情况下，不仅使用了一种补充和替代医学治疗，而且存在不同的组合（特别是顺势疗法和针灸）；因此，对于使用宽泛且不具体的补充和替代医学类别的研究得出预测性结论时应谨慎，因为其中有几种疗法不应被视为补充和替代医学。
