High Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Inside and Outside of the Government-Funded Health Care System in Norway

Objectives: The objective of this study was to describe the Norwegian population's use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) inside as well as outside of the health care system in Norway over the previous 12 months. Design: A survey based on telephone interviews has been conducted. Setting: The interviewees were sampled from the 97% of Norwegians aged 15 years or more living in private households with a landline telephone or a cell phone. Subjects: In total, 9035 individuals were called in order to include 1007 individuals in the sample. Outcome measure: The main outcome measure was the proportion receiving CAM given by a CAM practitioner over the previous 12 months. The interviews were made by trained interviewers in March 2007 by Synovate MMI for NAFKAM. Results: "Over the previous 12 months," 48.7% of the respondents had received CAM by CAM practitioners outside of or by health care personnel inside the health care system. Approximately 18% had received CAM by providers four or more times "over the previous 12 months." The highest proportion of female users of CAM can be found in 15-24-year-olds. Conclusions: The high use of CAM provided by CAM practitioners outside of as well as by health care providers inside the health care system indicates that users do not see themselves as belonging to one or the other system; they have already combined both systems when designing their own care.