High Frequency of CAM Use Among Children in Germany

Weissenstein, Anne; Straeter, Alexandra; Villalon, Gloria; Luchter, Elisabeth; Bittmann, Stefan

doi:10.1089/acm.2012.0398

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The present results imply that CAM use in Germany is considerable among 15-year-old children and confirm the popularity of CAM among German children found by other studies [5,6,9,17-19]. A birth cohort study from 2007 [5] analyzing homeopathy use and consultation with a non-medical health practitioner (‘Heilpraktiker’) in 2-year-old children found a 1-year prevalence for homeopathy use of 27.7%.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Utilization of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among children from a German birth cohort (GINIplus): patterns, costs, and trends of use

Italia

Brand

Heinrich

et al. 2015

BMC Complement Altern Med

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BackgroundThe use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is widespread among children in Germany and other European countries. Only a few studies are available on trends in pediatric CAM use over time. The study’s objective was to present updated results for prevalence, predictors, and costs of CAM use among German children and a comparison with findings from a previous follow-up of the same birth cohort.MethodsData were collected for 3013 children on their utilization of medicinal products (during the last 4 weeks) and consultation with CAM providers (in the preceding year) from a German birth cohort study (GINIplus, 15-year follow-up) using a self-administered questionnaire. The reported medicinal CAMs were classified into six categories (homeopathy, herbal drugs, nutritionals, minerals and trace elements, microorganisms, further CAM). Drug prices were traced using pharmaceutical identification numbers (PZNs), or otherwise conservatively estimated. Finally, the results were compared with data obtained from the 10-year follow-up of the same birth cohort study by adopting the identical methodology.ResultsIn all, 26% of the reported 2489 drugs were medicinal CAM. The 4-week prevalence for homeopathy and herbal drug use was 7.5% and 5.6%, respectively. Some 13.9% of the children used at least one type of medicinal CAM in the preceding 4 weeks. The 1-year prevalence for consultation with CAM providers was 10.8%. From the drugs identified as CAM, 53.7% were homeopathic remedies, and 30.8% were herbal drugs.Factors associated with higher medicinal CAM use were female gender, residing in Munich, and higher maternal education.A homeopathy user utilized on average homeopathic remedies worth EUR 15.28. The corresponding figure for herbal drug users was EUR 16.02, and EUR 18.72 for overall medicinal CAM users.Compared with the 10-year follow-up, the prevalence of homeopathy use was more than halved (−52%) and dropped substantially for herbal drug use (−36%) and overall CAM use (−38%) as well.ConclusionCAM use among 15-year-old children in the GINIplus cohort is popular, but decreased noticeably compared with children from the same cohort at the age of 10 years. This is possibly mainly because German health legislation normally covers CAM for children younger than 12 years only.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Utilization of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among children from a German birth cohort (GINIplus): patterns, costs, and trends of use

Italia

Brand

Heinrich

et al. 2015

BMC Complement Altern Med

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“…Herbal medicine and homoeopathy are the two frequently used CAMs in German-speaking countries [15,27,28,46]. Based on KiGGS data, we previously reported a pediatric homoeopathic medicinal product use of 4.6% [47] in Germany, slightly lower than herbal medicinal product use in the present study (5.8%).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 59%

“…A German study conducted in two birth cohorts [15] and other German studies among pediatric outpatients with small sample sizes [20,27,28], support this, but there are no representative epidemiological studies investigating herbal medicinal product use in the general child population. The present study attempts to fill this knowledge gap.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of herbal medicinal products among children and adolescents in Germany

Wolf

Zhuang

et al. 2014

BMC Complement Altern Med

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BackgroundGermany is a country with a high use of herbal medicinal products. Population-based data on the use of herbal medicinal products among children are lacking. The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence, patterns and determinants of herbal medicine use among children and adolescents in Germany.MethodsAs data base served the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS), a representative population based survey conducted 2003–2006 by the Robert Koch Institute. 17,450 boys and girls aged 0–17 years provided information on drug use in the preceding seven days. Herbal medicinal products were defined according to the European and German drug laws. SPSS Complex Sample method was used to estimate prevalence rates and factors associated with herbal medicine use.ResultsThe prevalence rate of herbal medicinal product use amounts to 5.8% (95% confidence interval 5.3-6.3%). Use of herbal medicine declines along with increasing age and shows no difference between boys and girls in younger age groups. Teenage girls are more likely to use herbal medicines than teenage boys. Two thirds of herbal medicines are used for the treatment of coughs and colds; nearly half of herbal medicines are prescribed by medical doctors. Determinants of herbal medicinal product use are younger age, residing in South Germany, having a poor health status, having no immigration background and coming from a higher social class family. Children’s and parents-related health behavior is not found to be associated with herbal medicine use after adjusting for social class.ConclusionsUse of herbal medicinal products among children and adolescents between the ages of 0 and 17 years in Germany is widely spread and shows relatively higher rates compared to international data. This study provides a reference on the use of herbal medicinal products for policy-makers, health professionals and parents. Further studies are needed to investigate the effectiveness and safety of specific herbal medicinal products, potential effects of long term use as well as possible interactions of herbal medicinal products with concomitantly used conventional medicines.

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“…3 Two German studies showed some use of CAM in 81.7% of the patients attending tertiary outpatient clinics 4 and that 75.7% of the 115 observed children in a pediatric day center received CAM from their parents. 5 Most children in the day center (58.4%) received a combination of CAM and so-called conventional medicine, whereas 15.6% used CAM alone and 26.0% used only conventional prescribed medications. The physician was informed about the CAM treatment only in half of the cases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The physician was informed about the CAM treatment only in half of the cases. 5 Despite the growing number of publications on CAM, there is no generally accepted definition of CAM. 6 The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine defines CAM as "a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not currently considered to be part of conventional medicine."…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Headache in Children: Update on Complementary Treatments

et al. 2013

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Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is widely used by both physicians and patients with primary headache syndromes. Despite a considerable number of articles addressing CAM in primary headache syndromes, the overall evidence for CAM is still poor. The aim of this review was to give an overview of the current evidence of the main alternative therapies used in the treatment of primary headache syndromes of childhood. MEDLINE and Cochrane Library were systematically searched for articles dealing with complementary and alternative treatment or prophylaxis of headache and migraine published within the past 20 years.

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High Frequency of CAM Use Among Children in Germany

Cited by 11 publications

References 9 publications

Utilization of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among children from a German birth cohort (GINIplus): patterns, costs, and trends of use

Utilization of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among children from a German birth cohort (GINIplus): patterns, costs, and trends of use

Use of herbal medicinal products among children and adolescents in Germany

Headache in Children: Update on Complementary Treatments

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