The Use of Alternative Medicine by Children

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 94 (6) ◽  
pp. 811-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Spigelblatt ◽  
Gisèle Laîné-Ammara ◽  
I. Barry Pless ◽  
Adrian Guyver

Objective. Alternative medicine (AM) is of growing interest to the general public. Although several studies have been published concerning its use in adults, the use by children is less well known. The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency with which alternative medicine is employed in a pediatric population that also uses conventional medicine. A second goal is to investigate the sociodemographic factors that influence the choice of these forms of therapy. Methods. Parents of children consulting the general outpatient clinic of a university hospital completed a self-administered questionnaire asking about previous use of AM for themselves or their children. Results. Based on 1911 completed questionnaires, 208 children (11%) previously consulted one or more AM practitioners. Chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy, and acupuncture together accounted for 84% of use. Children who used AM differed significantly from those who only used conventional medicine in that they were older than the nonusers, their mothers were better educated, and their parents also tended to use AM. Conclusion. The findings indicate that AM is an aspect of child health care that no longer can be ignored. Being aware of these practices will enable physicians to discuss alternative therapies with parents in order to ensure the continuity of essential conventional treatments.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinh Thac ◽  
Freddy Karup Pedersen ◽  
Tang Chi Thuong ◽  
Le Bich Lien ◽  
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh ◽  
...  

A study of 600 rural under-five mothers’ knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) in child care was performed in 4 southern provinces of Vietnam. The mothers were randomly selected and interviewed about sociodemographic factors, health seeking behaviour, and practice of home care of children and neonates. 93.2% of the mothers were literate and well-educated, which has been shown to be important for child health care. 98.5% were married suggesting a stable family, which is also of importance for child health. Only 17.3% had more than 2 children in their family. The mother was the main caretaker in 77.7% of the families. Only 1% would use quacks as their first health contact, but 25.2% would use a private clinic, which therefore eases the burden on the government system. Nearly 69% had given birth in a hospital, 27% in a commune health station, and only 2.7% at home without qualified assistance. 89% were giving exclusive breast feeding at 6 months, much more frequent than in the cities. The majority of the mothers could follow IMCI guideline for home care, although 25.2% did not deal correctly with cough and 38.7% did not deal correctly with diarrhoea. Standard information about Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI) based home care is still needed.


1998 ◽  
Vol 24 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 185-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen M. Boozang

Physicians have struggled to defeat alternative medicine, and to obtain a monopoly over the health care of their patients, since physicians began systematically organizing in the United States. They claim to oppose alternative medicine because it lacks efficacy, may waste precious health care dollars and may harm patients. Part II of this Article examines the ongoing debate about alternative medicine and the arguments that may wedge the door of Western medicine open to alternative treatment methods. Alternative medicine's successful entry into Western practice depends on convincing conventional medicine of the efficacy of alternative treatments, a task that remains largely undone. Part III explains why the debate about unproven alternative therapies differs from previous discussions about human research, and therefore merits independent consideration. Part IV argues that it is not ethically appropriate for physicians to offer or agree to provide alternative therapies whose efficacy remain unproven or are of dubious potential.


2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Alan Pincus ◽  
Stephen B. Thomas ◽  
Donna J. Keyser ◽  
Nicholas Castle ◽  
Jacob W. Dembosky ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Mendelsohn ◽  
Samantha Berkule-Silberman ◽  
Lesley Morrow ◽  
Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda ◽  
Carolyn Brockmeyer ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 60-65
Author(s):  
Umi Solikhah ◽  
Hari Kusnanto ◽  
Fitri Haryanti

Community empowerment with regard to maternal and child health services at the community level carried out by cadre.Cadre is health volunteers, selected by the community.404 number of active cadres in primary health care of South Purwokerto entirely female, although it may be a cadre of men. Active cadre toddler actively providing services every month for child before 5 years age. Interest to know the various reasons committed cadres in performing their duties. The method used is qualitative study,to describe a variety of reasons commitment to perform cadre duties in child health care. Retrieving data using interview techniques through the focus group discussion. Data from 30 cadres.Results of interviews taken until the data saturation, as a reason believed by cadres in the commitment to carry out tasks of serving the Muslim community. Characteristic respondent are mean of age 38 years (the youngest age of 25 years and the oldest 55 years old), a 100% Islamic religion, level of education majority of senior high school(at least primary school). Educational level health cadres in Banyumas has met the minimum requirements by the WHO.Results of the analysis showed thatcommitment includes a cadre of dedicated, caring community, a desire to learn, social esteem, individual satisfaction, togetherness, organization, and spirituality. The spirit of cadre to the community need the attention of the government for development and prosperity in accordance with their duties.Spiritual reasons become one of the motivations in providing health services to the community, albeit to a spirit of dedication and a great desire to learn. Cadres continue to provide services, even to families with different spiritual.


Author(s):  
Tabitha Heller ◽  
Christof Kloos ◽  
Nicolle Mueller ◽  
Josef Roemelt ◽  
Christian Keinki ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundComplementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is used often by patients with different diseases. While some authors subsume religiousness and spirituality to CAM, others do not. The objective of the present study was to assess the prevalence and types of CAM usage as well as the participants' spirituality/religiousness in an outpatient department for endocrinology and metabolic diseases.MethodsAll individuals visiting the outpatient department at a German university hospital from April to June 2009 were offered a standardized questionnaire on the use of dietary supplements and alternative therapies as well as their religiousness/spirituality. Demographic and clinical data of 428 respondents were taken from the electronic health record.ResultsOf the respondents, 16.4% (n = 66) classified themselves to be religious/spiritual and 67.9% (n = 273) as not religious/spiritual. Women were more religious/spiritual than men (p = 0.02). 41.4% of the respondents used supplements and 27.4% additional therapies. The use of supplements and additional therapies was more frequent in people with higher religiousness/spirituality (p = 0.005 and p = 0.01,resp.) but there were no associations between religiousness/spirituality and the number of consultations, costs for drugs, appraisal of the physicians treatment methods, the perceived effectiveness of prescribed drugs, fear of late complications or of side effects.ConclusionsA higher religiousness/spirituality is associated with a more frequent use of supplements or additional therapies in individuals with endocrinopathies or metabolic diseases. As CAM has been shown to be associated with worse outcome, addressing religiousness/spirituality which stresses the responsibility of the person for his life might offer an additional resource and should be further studied.


2020 ◽  
pp. archdischild-2020-319584
Author(s):  
Hilary Hoey ◽  
Massimo Pettoello-Mantovani ◽  
Mehmet Vural

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