Use and acceptance of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine in Germany-an online representative cross-sectional study

Michael Jeitler; Miriam Ortiz; Benno Brinkhaus; Mike Sigl; Rasmus Hoffmann; Miriam Trübner; Andreas Michalsen; Manfred Wischnewsky; Christian S Kessler

doi:10.3389/fmed.2024.1372924

Use and acceptance of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine in Germany-an online representative cross-sectional study

Front Med (Lausanne). 2024 Mar 13:11:1372924. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1372924. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Michael Jeitler^{1

2}, Miriam Ortiz¹, Benno Brinkhaus¹, Mike Sigl³, Rasmus Hoffmann⁴, Miriam Trübner⁴, Andreas Michalsen^{1

2}, Manfred Wischnewsky⁵, Christian S Kessler^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
² Department of Internal Medicine and Nature-Based Therapies, Immanuel Hospital Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
³ Institute for Cultural Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
⁴ Institute for Sociology, Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany.
⁵ Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.

Abstract

Background: Older representative surveys show that Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (TCIM) is used by about 60% of the German population. However, no data exists for the current nationwide situation. The main aim of this cross-sectional study is to investigate the current use and acceptance of TCIM in Germany.

Methods: This study is based on a representative sample of the German population aged 18-75 years. Participants were asked about the use and acceptance of TCIM. The survey was conducted online using Computer Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) in 2022 by three renowned German market research institutes on behalf of and in close coordination with the working group. The data set was analyzed descriptively and inferentially.

Results: In total, 4,065 participants (52% female, 48% male, 0.4% diverse) responded completely (response rate: 21.5%). Among participants, 70% stated that they had used TCIM at some point in their lives, with 32% doing so in the last 12 months and 18% currently. The most common reason given (17%) was musculoskeletal pain. For their own health, 39% stated that TCIM is important. Traditional European Medicine was rated as very/mainly effective by 27% of participants and as partly effective by 44% (conventional medicine: 69% very/mainly effective, 19% partly effective). As a complementary treatment strategy to conventional medicine, 35% considered TCIM to be optimal ("Complementary Medicine"), 33% in combination with conventional medicine ("Integrative Medicine") and 5% without conventional medicine ("Alternative Medicine"). The majority of the participants were in favor of more research on TCIM and stated that the costs of TCIM services should be covered by health insurance companies (71% and 69%, respectively).

Conclusion: These results from a representative online-population suggest that the use of TCIM in Germany remains at a high level. The nationwide relevance of TCIM should be given greater consideration in German health care policy making. TCIM should be systematically investigated using appropriate study designs and methods including high quality randomized clinical trials to investigate their effectiveness, efficacy, therapeutic safety and costs in the future.

Keywords: Naturheilkunde; alternative medicine; complementary medicine; cross-sectional study; integrative medicine; online-representative; traditional European medicine; traditional medicine.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The study was funded by the Karl and Veronica Carstens Foundation, and we would like to thank them for their support. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We acknowledge financial support from the Open Access Publication Fund of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.