Sarradon-Eck Aline, Bouhnik Anne-Déborah, Rey Dominique, Bendiane Marc-Karim, Huiart Laetitia, Peretti-Watel Patrick
Aix Marseille Univ, INSERM, IRD, SESSTIM, "Economics & Social Sciences Applied to Health & Analysis of Medical Information", Marseille, France.
Inst Paoli Calmettes, SESSTIM, Marseille, France.
J Cancer Surviv. 2017 Aug;11(4):421-430. doi: 10.1007/s11764-017-0599-y. Epub 2017 Feb 1.
The purpose of this study was to assess the use of non-conventional medicine (NCM) in a representative sample of French patients 2 years after cancer diagnosis.
The study was based on data obtained in the VICAN survey (2012) on a representative sample of 4349 patients 2 years after cancer diagnosis. Self-reported data were collected at telephone interviews with patients. The questionnaire addressed the various types of non-conventional treatments used at the time of the survey.
Among the participants, 16.4% reported that they used NCM, and 45.3% of this group had not used NCM before cancer diagnosis (new NCM users). Commonly, NCMs used were homeopathy (64.0%), acupuncture (22.1%), osteopathy (15.1%), herbal medicine (8.1%), diets (7.3%) and energy therapies (5.8%). NCM use was found to be significantly associated with younger age, female gender and a higher education level. Previous NCM use was significantly associated with having a managerial occupation and an expected 5-year survival rate ≥80% at diagnosis; recent NCM use was associated with cancer progression since diagnosis, impaired quality of life and higher pain reports.
This is the first study on NCM use 2 years after cancer diagnosis in France. In nearly half of the NCM users, cancer diagnosis was one of the main factors which incited patients to use NCM. Apart from the NCM users' socioeconomic profile, the present results show that impaired health was a decisive factor: opting for unconventional approaches was therefore a pragmatic response to needs which conventional medicine fails to meet during the course of the disease.
Better information of patients and caregivers is needed to allow access to these therapies to a larger population of survivors.
本研究旨在评估癌症诊断两年后法国患者代表性样本中非常规医学（NCM）的使用情况。
该研究基于VICAN调查（2012年）获得的数据，该调查针对癌症诊断两年后的4349名患者代表性样本。通过电话采访患者收集自我报告数据。问卷涉及调查时使用的各种非常规治疗方法。
在参与者中，16.4%报告使用过NCM，其中45.3%在癌症诊断前未使用过NCM（新的NCM使用者）。常用的NCM包括顺势疗法（64.0%）、针灸（22.1%）、整骨疗法（15.1%）、草药（8.1%）、饮食疗法（7.3%）和能量疗法（5.8%）。发现NCM的使用与较年轻的年龄、女性性别和较高的教育水平显著相关。以前使用NCM与从事管理职业以及诊断时预期5年生存率≥80%显著相关；最近使用NCM与诊断后的癌症进展、生活质量受损和更高的疼痛报告相关。
这是法国首次关于癌症诊断两年后NCM使用情况的研究。在近一半的NCM使用者中，癌症诊断是促使患者使用NCM的主要因素之一。除了NCM使用者的社会经济概况外，目前的结果表明健康受损是一个决定性因素：因此选择非常规方法是对疾病过程中传统医学无法满足的需求的务实回应。
需要更好地向患者和护理人员提供信息，以便更多的幸存者能够获得这些疗法。
