The attitudes, behaviors and beliefs of patients of conventional vs. complementary (alternative) medicine

Abstract

Subjects were two groups of patients, one whose members were visiting a GP and the other whose members were seeing a variety of Alternative Practitioners (AP), who were not significantly different in terms of sex, age, level of education, marital status, occupational status, political views, newspaper readership, ethnic grouping, religion, and income. The major difference between the two groups were the fact that the AP group were more critical and skeptical about the efficacy of modern medicine; they believed their health could be improved; they stayed loyal to their chosen practitioner; they had tried more alternative therapies and have more self‐ and ecologically aware lifestyles; and they believed that treatment should concentrate on the whole person and greater knowledge of the physiology of the body.

Pharmacists' Patterns of Use, Knowledge, and Attitudes Toward Complementary and Alternative Medicine

“…Robinson et al also suggested that users of herbs or supplements appear to be a more health conscious group (Robinson et al, 2002). On the other hand, contrary to a study by Furnham and Forey,only 8.8% of the pharmacists in our study used CAM because of its perceived safety (Furnham and Forey, 1994). This is possibly because pharmacists are aware that herbal medicine is not without its risks.…”

Pharmacists' Patterns of Use, Knowledge, and Attitudes Toward Complementary and Alternative Medicine

“…Robinson et al also suggested that users of herbs or supplements appear to be a more health conscious group (Robinson et al, 2002). On the other hand, contrary to a study by Furnham and Forey,only 8.8% of the pharmacists in our study used CAM because of its perceived safety (Furnham and Forey, 1994). This is possibly because pharmacists are aware that herbal medicine is not without its risks.…”

The Perceived Efficacy and Risks of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Conventional Medicine: A Vignette Study1

“…In contrast, GP patients were much more likely to agree that orthodox treatments were effective than they were to agree that CAM treatments were effective. Such findings were consistent with previous research in this area (Furnham & Forey, 1994;Vincent & Furnham, 1997;Vincent et al, 1995) that suggested that, somewhat unsurprisingly, CAM users tend to have strong beliefs about the efficacy of CAM treatments. Furthermore, the results of this experiment showed that CAM users did not differentiate among the CAM treatments, given that they agreed that each of the CAM treatments were effective and had specific benefits.…”

An investigation of the health beliefs and motivations of complementary medicine clients

“…The current results matched those of other studies which found that compared to OM clients, CM clients tended to have higher incomes (Furnham & Bhagrath, 1993), and a higher education level (Furnham & Forey, 1994;Kitai et al, 1998). The higher educational level of CM clients may also explain their higher income level relative to OM clients.…”

“…Along with the finding that new CM clients had more health awareness than OM clients, these results clarify and extend the previous findings which interpreted the difference in health awareness between CM and OM clients as simply the reason for choosing CM (Furnham & Bhagrath, 1993;Furnham & Forey, 1994). With a better delineation of the CM client group the current results now suggest a reciprocal relationship between health awareness and the use of CM.…”

Pharmacists' Patterns of Use, Knowledge, and Attitudes Toward Complementary and Alternative Medicine

“…Robinson et al also suggested that users of herbs or supplements appear to be a more health conscious group (Robinson et al, 2002). On the other hand, contrary to a study by Furnham and Forey,only 8.8% of the pharmacists in our study used CAM because of its perceived safety (Furnham and Forey, 1994). This is possibly because pharmacists are aware that herbal medicine is not without its risks.…”

The Perceived Efficacy and Risks of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Conventional Medicine: A Vignette Study1

“…In contrast, GP patients were much more likely to agree that orthodox treatments were effective than they were to agree that CAM treatments were effective. Such findings were consistent with previous research in this area (Furnham & Forey, 1994;Vincent & Furnham, 1997;Vincent et al, 1995) that suggested that, somewhat unsurprisingly, CAM users tend to have strong beliefs about the efficacy of CAM treatments. Furthermore, the results of this experiment showed that CAM users did not differentiate among the CAM treatments, given that they agreed that each of the CAM treatments were effective and had specific benefits.…”

An investigation of the health beliefs and motivations of complementary medicine clients

“…The current results matched those of other studies which found that compared to OM clients, CM clients tended to have higher incomes (Furnham & Bhagrath, 1993), and a higher education level (Furnham & Forey, 1994;Kitai et al, 1998). The higher educational level of CM clients may also explain their higher income level relative to OM clients.…”

“…Along with the finding that new CM clients had more health awareness than OM clients, these results clarify and extend the previous findings which interpreted the difference in health awareness between CM and OM clients as simply the reason for choosing CM (Furnham & Bhagrath, 1993;Furnham & Forey, 1994). With a better delineation of the CM client group the current results now suggest a reciprocal relationship between health awareness and the use of CM.…”

Pharmacists' Patterns of Use, Knowledge, and Attitudes Toward Complementary and Alternative Medicine

“…Robinson et al also suggested that users of herbs or supplements appear to be a more health conscious group (Robinson et al, 2002). On the other hand, contrary to a study by Furnham and Forey,only 8.8% of the pharmacists in our study used CAM because of its perceived safety (Furnham and Forey, 1994). This is possibly because pharmacists are aware that herbal medicine is not without its risks.…”

The Perceived Efficacy and Risks of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Conventional Medicine: A Vignette Study1

“…In contrast, GP patients were much more likely to agree that orthodox treatments were effective than they were to agree that CAM treatments were effective. Such findings were consistent with previous research in this area (Furnham & Forey, 1994;Vincent & Furnham, 1997;Vincent et al, 1995) that suggested that, somewhat unsurprisingly, CAM users tend to have strong beliefs about the efficacy of CAM treatments. Furthermore, the results of this experiment showed that CAM users did not differentiate among the CAM treatments, given that they agreed that each of the CAM treatments were effective and had specific benefits.…”

An investigation of the health beliefs and motivations of complementary medicine clients

“…The current results matched those of other studies which found that compared to OM clients, CM clients tended to have higher incomes (Furnham & Bhagrath, 1993), and a higher education level (Furnham & Forey, 1994;Kitai et al, 1998). The higher educational level of CM clients may also explain their higher income level relative to OM clients.…”

“…Along with the finding that new CM clients had more health awareness than OM clients, these results clarify and extend the previous findings which interpreted the difference in health awareness between CM and OM clients as simply the reason for choosing CM (Furnham & Bhagrath, 1993;Furnham & Forey, 1994). With a better delineation of the CM client group the current results now suggest a reciprocal relationship between health awareness and the use of CM.…”