Thomson Medstat Survey Finds Over One-Third of Americans Use Alternative Medicine...
2007-02-13 10:31:00
More than 37% of U.S. households regularly turn to alternative treatments for everything from headaches to diabetes, according to a survey conducted by Thomson Medstat, Ann Arbor, MI, a business of The Thomson Corporation. Thomson Medstat's 2006 consumer healthcare survey asked 23,000 adults about their use of alternative medicine and found that:
* 37.2% of U.S. households use some form of alternative medicine. The most common reason was to improve general wellness.
* Alternative medicine use is most prevalent among those with annual incomes exceeding $100,000 and those with post-graduate college degrees.
* 64.1% of respondents said their physicians were aware of their use of alternative medicine.
* 41.9% said at least some of the costs of their alternative treatments were covered by insurance.
* Herbal supplements and massage/chiropractic care were the most commonly used alternative care, followed by mind/body practices, energy therapies and naturopathy.
The study found that affluent, highly educated Americans are driving the growth of the alternative market. Nearly half (49.9%) of households earning more than $100,000 per year sought alternative treatments in the past 12 months. Likewise, 49.6% of those with post-graduate degrees used alternative medicine. At the lower end of the income/education scale, utilization dropped to 30% in households earning $15,000-$24,999 per year and to 18.1% among those without a high school diploma. Alternative medicines are broadly defined as therapeutic or preventive healthcare practices such as homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic and herbal medicine.
Christopher Wiechert, C.N.C.
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