Conventional health care service utilization among cancer survivors that visit traditional and complementary providers in the Tromsø study: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) is commonly used among cancer patients worldwide. Cancer patients in Norway mainly visit T&CM providers in addition to conventional health care services. It is not known how their utilization of T&CM providers influences their use of conventional health care services. The aim of this study was to investigate the difference between the utilization of conventional health care services among cancer survivors that visit T&CM providers and those that do not, and their associated factors. Method Health care service utilization data were obtained from cancer survivors 40 years and above participating in the Tromsø Study: Tromsø 7 conducted in 2015–2016. Data were collected from self-administered questionnaires. Pearson chi-square tests, Fisher exact tests, t-test, and logistic regression were used, with the significance level considered at p < 0.05. Results Of 1553 individuals, 10% (n = 155) reported visiting T&CM providers in the past 12 months. As both cancer survivors visiting and not visiting T&CM providers were frequent users of conventional health care, no significant differences were found in the overall use of conventional health care (98.1vs.94.5%, p = .056). Users of T&CM providers were however more likely to visit physiotherapists (40.1% vs 25%, p < .001), emergency rooms (29.2% vs 16.5%, p < .001), chiropractors (17% vs 6%, p < .001), and psychologist/psychiatrist (8.9% vs 3.4%, p < .001). They also had more frequent visits to conventional health care (11.45 vs 8.31 yearly visits, p = 0.014), particularly to general practitioners (5.21 visits vs. 3.94 visits, p = .002). Conclusion Results from this study show that visits to T&CM providers are associated with more visits to conventional health care services among cancer survivors. Further studies are needed to investigate the reasons for this high use behavior.

Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the context of cancer; prevalence, reasons for use, disclosure, information received, risks and benefits reported by people with cancer in Norway

“…Our finding of female cancer patients using more CAM at levels 2-4 is in line with the majority of other studies, both nationally [7,46,47] and internationally [48][49][50][51]. Women use health care services, in general, more frequently than men [15,[52][53][54][55] but report to have more unmet health care needs within conventional health care than men [52]. This may be the reason why women choose to use CAM to a higher degree than men [7,56,57].…”

“…This is also the case in Norway where 18% of the cancer patients reported to have used "herbal or "natural" medicine" within a time frame of one year compared with 14% who had consulted CAM providers [7]. Most cancer patients in Norway use CAM in conjunction with conventional cancer treatment and use conventional health care services more frequently than cancer patients not using CAM [15].…”

Satisfaction Levels Among Users of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Services: A Questionnaire Development Study

“…25 Most previous studies sought to measure knowledge levels and the efficacy of TCM treatment by interviewing subjects with chronic diseases. [26][27][28][29][30][31][32] In addition, Hashem-Dabaghian et al developed a Treatment Satisfaction with Traditional Medicines Questionnaire and analysed its validity and reliability. 5…”

Prevalence of late and long-term effects of cancer (treatment) and use of complementary and alternative medicine in Norway

“…The women in the present study did; however, visit CAM providers somewhat more frequently for these symptoms (40% for early menopause and 30% for hot flashes versus 10.6% in the Australian study). One of the reasons for this discrepancy might be that the Australian study limited the use to the last 12 months and that the participants were only 1-2 years post diagnosis, while the highest use of CAM among female cancer patients in Norway was found to be 1-5 years after being diagnosed with cancer [93].…”