UPFRONT | Roundup NEWS Take 5 Nearly 8 in 10 Canadians have used alternative medicine: survey Vancouver – Canadians are increasingly utilizing comple-mentary and alternative medicine – such as chiroprac-tic care, massage therapy, yoga and acupuncture – ac-cording to a new survey by the Fraser Institute. “Alternative treatments are playing an increasingly im-portant role in Canadians’ overall health care, and un-derstanding how all the parts of the health-care system fit together is vital if policymak-ers are going to find ways to improve it,” said Nadeem Esmail, Fraser Institute senior fellow and co-author of “Complementary and Alter-native Medicine: Use and Public Attitudes” reports re-leased in 1997, 2006 and 2016. The 2016 survey involved 2,000 interviews with a ran-domly selected sample of adults aged 18 and older. Respondents were asked about their health conditions, their use of conventional medical services, and whether they had tried any alternative medicines for their health conditions, the Fraser Insti-tute report said. Survey re-spondents were also asked about their views on health, health care, medical care and public policy. The survey found more than three-quarters of Cana-dians – 79 per cent – have used at least one complemen-tary or alternative medicine (CAM) or therapy some time in their lives. That’s an in-crease from 74 per cent in 2006 and 73 per cent in 1997, when two previous similar surveys were conducted. 6 Canadian Chiropractor June 2017 In fact, more than one in two Canadians (56 per cent) used at least one complemen-tary or alternative medicine or therapy in the previous 12 months, an increase from 54 per cent in 2006 and 50 per cent in 1997. Canadians are using those services more often as well, averaging 11.1 visits in 2016, compared to fewer than nine visits a year in both 2006 and 1997. The most popular comple-mentary and alternative treatments used by Canadi-ans in 2016 were massage therapy (44 per cent), fol-lowed by chiropractic care (42 per cent), yoga (27 per cent), relaxation techniques (25 per cent) and acupuncture (22 per cent.) In total, Canadians spent $8.8 billion on complemen-tary and alternative medicines and therapies last year, up from $8 billion (inflation ad-justed) in 2006. Interestingly, the survey finds a majority of respond-ents – 58 per cent – support paying for alternative treat-ments privately and don’t want them included in pro-vincial health plans. Support for private payment is highest (at 69 per cent) among 35-to 44-year-olds. “Complementary and al-ternative therapies play an increasingly important role in Canadians’ overall health care, but policy makers should not see this as an invi-tation to expand government coverage – the majority of Canadians believe alternative therapies should be paid for privately,” Esmail said. NUMBER CRUNCHING Alternative Facts The Fraser Institute has commissioned a national survey to study Canadians’ attitudes toward and use of complementary and alternative medicine. Here are some highlights from 2016. 60% in very good or excellent health condition 34% those with back and neck-related health problems used at least one alternative or complementary health care in 2016 www.canadianchiropractor.ca Illustration: Brian Fray 42% received chiropractic care in 2016, second only to massage therapy at 44% 3/4
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