Rural Women Higher Users of Complementary & Alternative Practitioners
A recent research paper published in January this year, by researchers at the Universities of Queensland & Newcastle has identified women in rural and remote areas as higher users of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners than their urban counterparts. The study defined CAM use as a consultation with an alternative health care practitioner and did not look at or include the use of self-prescribed complementary medicines.
Data for this new research comes from Survey 5 of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health which was designed to investigate multiple factors affecting the health of well being of women over a 20-year period. Analysis for this study are restricted to the most recent survey, which was conducted in 2007 on a total of 10,638 women aged from 56-61 years in urban, rural and remote areas.
Findings from this recent analysis demonstrate that a significantly higher percentage of women from rural and remote areas consult a CAM practitioner when compared to those women in urban areas. The analysis suggest that the older women in rural areas consult CAM practitioners to complement their conventional medical care, and as a common strategy for helping maintain general health and wellbeing rather than for treating specific health problems and conditions.
The findings did not support the hypothesis that women relied more on CAM practitioners in rural areas due to difficulty with seeing a medical practitioner when they needed to, or dissatisfaction with their primary medical care. Rather that women who consulted alternative healthcare practitioners also tended to consult more frequently with their GP’s, than CAM non-users.
The symptoms or conditions that women in rural areas more often sought help from CAM practitioners were severe tiredness, anxiety, night sweats, depression and back pain, indigestion and heartburn, headaches, joint pain, urinary discomfort and allergies such as hay fever and sinusitis.
The researchers indicate the need for further investigation to understand the reasons for such geographical differences in CAM use. This research will provide insights of importance to rural and remote practitioners, patients, health managers and policy-makers in their efforts to provide effective rural and remote health care services and provision.
Adams J., Sibbritt D., & Chi-Wai L. 2011. ‘The urban-rural divide in complementary and alternative medicine use: a longitudinal study of 10,638 women’. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine . vol.11, no.2, pp. 1-7.
