Care seeking, complementary therapy and herbal medicine use among people with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease CAMELOT Phase II: surveying for diversity

Many Australians manage their health through the combined use of conventional medicine and complementary and alternative medicine, with substantial direct and indirect costs to government and consumers. Our interest was in the varied health practices of people with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which are among the most prevalent chronic conditions in Australia. Qualitative data collected in the fi rst phase of the study informed the design of a self administered questionnaire, for people with cardiovascular disease or diabetes, to investigate care seeking, complementary therapy use and the relevance of social, locational, economic and cultural factors to health behaviour. Valid survey returns totalled 2915 (290 online and 2625 postal), providing a rich data set on health status, health care and costs, demographic and social information, and quality of life. In the 12 months prior to the survey, 43 of all respondents had used CAM products or practitioners, including 11 who used Western herbal medicines. The data offers considerable opportunities to tease out the drivers, costs and benefi ts of CAM use by people with chronic disease. Although findings will be published across a number of articles, here we profi le the demographic and health status characteristics of survey respondents and compare the characteristics of users of naturopathy and Western herbal medicine practitioner with this.