TY - JOUR T1 - Use of alternative medicine by patients attending a gastroenterology clinic JF - Canadian Medical Association Journal JO - CMAJ SP - 121 LP - 125 VL - 142 IS - 2 AU - M. J. Verhoef AU - L. R. Sutherland AU - L. Brkich Y1 - 1990/01/15 UR - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/142/2/121.abstract N2 - We carried out a study to determine the proportion of patients attending a university-based gastroenterology outpatient clinic who sought alternative medical care for the same health problem that had prompted them to see a gastroenterologist. After the patients completed a self-administered questionnaire, the gastroenterologist gave a diagnosis and assigned a functional rating. Of the 395 patients 287 (73%) had not used alternative medicine, and 36 (9%) had sought alternative medical care for the problem that had prompted them to see a gastroenterologist. There were no significant differences between alternative medicine users and nonusers in sociodemographic characteristics, use of health care services or general health status. Patients with a functional disease were more likely to seek alternative medical care than those with organic disease (33% v. 7%) (p less than 0.0001). Fewer alternative medicine users (54%) than nonusers (85%) were satisfied with conventional medicine (p less than 0.001), and more alternative medicine users (49%) than nonusers (13%) were very sceptical of conventional medicine (p less than 0.0001). ER -