A Study on Use of Complementary-Alternative Therapy in Middle-aged Women

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the use pattern of alternative therapies in middle aged women. Method: The subjects of this study were 530 women from 40 to 64 years of age. The data of this study was patients' records. The data was gathered from April 1st, 2004 to June 30th, 2004. Data was analyzed statistically by using the SPSS/WIN 10.0 program. Result: It was shown that 63.5% of the subjects have utilized one or more types of alternative therapy. The most common type of alternative therapy was dietary and nutritional therapy 38.3%, and the place of use was the home 64.1%. The most common reason was a recommendation by friends. The degree of satisfaction after the use of alternative therapy was 95.2%. Among users of alternative therapies, the most frequent responses to each question were as follows; Motive of Use- "for health maintenance and promotion." (62.7%) In the relation ship between general characteristics and utilization of alternative therapy, religion(x2=12.33, p=.02), exercise(x2=8.21, p=.004), and health status(x2=14.95, p=.005) showed a significant statistical difference. Conclusion: We found that middle aged women used alternative therapies more frequently than other populations. Therefore, it is suggested that medical doctors or nurses verify the true effects or side-effects from the most therapies or nurses verify the true effects or side-effects from the most common complementary or alternative therapies through experiments.