Nadia Corp n.corp@keele.ac.uk
Justifications for using complementary and alternative medicine reported by persons with musculoskeletal conditions: A narrative literature synthesis
Corp, Nadia; Jordan, Joanne L.; Croft, Peter R.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is very popular with patients frequently combining it with orthodox health care. The high prevalence of CAM use and satisfaction with CAM reported by patients directly challenges an orthodox system that can only approve such use if it results from the application of biomedical concepts and science. Studies highlighting this as a cultural, sociological and historical phenomenon emphasise the value of choice for consumers of health care. Musculoskeletal conditions typify common problems for which the effectiveness of orthodox care is often unclear. We postulated that the reasons people give for using or not using CAM for musculoskeletal conditions, would therefore indicate the full range of expectations that people have of health care. Furthermore, these reasons would indicate how much people feel orthodox health care is or is not meeting their expectations. Therefore, this study aims to investigate people's reasons for choosing or avoiding CAM for non-traumatic musculoskeletal conditions. METHODS: A systematic search and narrative synthesis was conducted of published qualitative and quantitative studies related to CAM and non-traumatic musculoskeletal conditions. RESULTS: We identified 169 relevant papers detailing 152 separate studies, from which 1486 justifications were extracted concerning CAM use. Content analysis resulted in 11 distinct categories across four themes: practical aspects of care, clinical effectiveness, non-clinical outcomes of care, and a person's philosophy of illness and care. People provided similar rationales for both using and avoiding CAM, emphasising that, whilst CAM is perceived by many patients with musculoskeletal conditions to fill gaps in care (such as practitioner time or quality of the therapeutic relationship), orthodox care also seeks to deliver these aspects of care. However, people who used CAM also highlighted its alignment with their general philosophy and ideas about illness and health care, and often emphasised CAM's capacity to give them control over their condition and its treatment. CONCLUSION: Currently, CAM appears to have a significant role for patients with common painful long-term conditions in providing choices to enable individual needs to be met.
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | May 28, 2018 |
Publication Date | Jul 19, 2018 |
Journal | PLOS ONE |
Print ISSN | 1932-6203 |
Publisher | Public Library of Science |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 13 |
Issue | 7 |
Article Number | e0200879 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200879 |
Publisher URL | http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200879 |
Files
20180828_corp_journal.pone.0200879.pdf
(1.6 Mb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You might also like
Osteoarthritis year in review 2022: rehabilitation
(2022)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Keele Repository
Administrator e-mail: research.openaccess@keele.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search