Positive Health Online

Abstract

CROCETTI and colleagues, U.O. di Epidemiologia, CSPO, Azienda Ospedaliera Careggi, Firenze, Italy evaluated the proportion and characteristics of complementary therapy (CT) users among female patients with breast cancer who were receiving conventional treatment .

Background

Methodology

473 women who had received surgical intervention for breast cancer in the year of diagnosis were sent a questionnaire for completion; 242 women responded.

Results

Following cancer diagnosis, CT has been used by 16.5% and only 8.7% prior to diagnosis. The most commonly used CTs were homoeopathy, manual healing, herbalism and acupuncture . The primary reason cited for using CTs was physical distress ; a minority sought psychological support. 24 users were satisfied with the treatments and two-thirds would recommend them. Users were significantly younger, more educated and more likely to be previous users of CTs than non-users. Following the adjustment of each variable for the effect of the other variables, only previous use had an independent effect upon increasing the probability of becoming users following cancer diagnosis.

Conclusion

References

Crocetti E et al. The use of complementary therapies by breast cancer patients attending conventional treatment. Eur J Cancer 34(3): 324-8. Feb 1998.