A new study is showing the growing popularity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM): Use among U.S. adults increased by 14 percent between 2002 and 2007. WebMD reports:
CAM, which includes such practices as yoga, massage, herbal medicine, and meditation, has been increasing in popularity for many years. In 1990, a third of all Americans had used some form of CAM. By 2002, the number of people who had tried CAM had nearly doubled. The numbers, [Dejun Su, PhD, a sociologist at the University of Texas - Pan American] and his colleague Lifeng Li report, remain on the rise.
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More than a third of those who said they used CAM practices in 2007 also reported that they had an unmet medical need or had delayed getting medical care. Su speculates that this is due to the greater affordability of CAM, including provider-based CAM practices, compared to conventional medicine...
The research appears in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.
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