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The impact of uncertainty in society on the use of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine: a comparative study on visits to alternative/traditional/folk health care practitioners
[journal article]
Abstract Background: While traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) is gaining increased interest worldwide, the structural factors associated with the usage of TCAM at the social level have not been sufficiently explored. We aim to understand the social structure of uncertainty in society ... view more
Background: While traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) is gaining increased interest worldwide, the structural factors associated with the usage of TCAM at the social level have not been sufficiently explored. We aim to understand the social structure of uncertainty in society that affects the TCAM usage for men and women.
Methods: We studied 32 countries using data from the International Social Survey Programme and the World Bank. In this study, we defined TCAM usage as visits to an alternative/traditional/folk health care practitioner during the past 12 months. We performed a correlation analysis and used a generalized linear model .
Results: The prevalence of TCAM usage in terms of visits to practitioners was 26.1% globally, while usage varied across the 32 countries. Generalized linear models showed that unemployment rate was associated with the prevalence of TCAM usage in terms of visits to practitioners.
Conclusions: At the social-structural level TCAM usage involving visits to practitioners was related to job insecurity. Job insecurity led to a decrease in TCAM usage regarding visits to practitioners. These findings suggest that it is necessary to consider the social-structural factors of uncertainty in society when designing health policies related to TCAM.... view less
Keywords
alternative medicine; health care; social factors; social structure; international comparison
Classification
Medicine, Social Medicine
Free Keywords
Traditional; complementary and alternative medicine; Uncertainty in society; Job insecurity; ZA5800: International Social Survey Programme: Health and Health Care - ISSP 2011 (Data file Version 3.0.0); World Bank Open Data 2017
Document language
English
Publication Year
2019
Page/Pages
p. 1-13
Journal
BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 19 (2019)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-019-2662-x
ISSN
1472-6882
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed