Survey for health research and methodlogy class Essay

Survey for health research and methodlogy class - Essay Example In the U.S., both the medical community and public have shown more interest in different alternative medical practices over the past couple of years. The establishment of an Office of Alternative Medicine by the National Institutes of Health in 1992 was testimony to the growing interest by the U.S. healthcare fraternity in alternative medicines. The Office later noted that therapies that were then considered unconventional had the potential of gaining more acceptance and becoming conventional in the future (Berman, Singh, Lao, Singh, Ferentz & Hartnoll, 1995). Recent studies conducted in the United States of America, Britain, and Australia among other countries reveal that alternative medicines are getting wider acceptance and attention among physicians and members of the public. A study conducted in 1990 by Eisenberg and other researchers, for example, revealed that about 30% of the American population used at least one form or another of complementary therapy (Berman, Singh, Lao, Singh, Ferentz & Hartnoll, 1995). In Britain, the number of people practicing alternative medicine grew 5.6 times more than physicians. Alternative medicines are used in the treatment of various ailments ranging from fevers to aches, pains and cancers. A study published in the European Journal of Cancer in 2000 revealed that out of the 1023 women suffering from breast cancer, roughly 22% had consulted with an alternative medicine practitioner in the previous twelve months (Rees, Feigel, Vickers, Zollman, McGurk & Smith, 2000). The attitudes of physicians and patients toward alternative treatments for cancer have been a subject of great interest for many researchers especially considering the effects of physician attitudes on patients. In her study on the relationship between patients’ use of alternative cancer treatments and physicians reactions toward them, Bourgeault (1996) established that patient –physician