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Use of complementary and alternative medicine by pediatric rheumatology patients.

OBJECTIVE
To assess how often the patients in The Hospital for Sick Children's rheumatology clinic use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and the type of CAM used.


METHODS
Cross-sectional descriptive survey study in a tertiary care referral center.


RESULTS
We found that 90 (64%) of 141 respondents used at least 1 form of CAM; 45 (50%) of these 90 used more than 1 form. Duration of illness was positively associated with the use of CAM; the difference in the mean length of illness between users (4.12 +/- 3.60 years) and nonusers (2.82 +/- 3.23 years) was 1.3 years (P = 0.04). Of the 41 respondents with more than 1 illness, 32 used CAM, compared with 57 of 96 who had only 1 illness (P = 0.036).


CONCLUSION
Health care providers must be aware of their patients' possible use of CAM, especially those with more than 1 illness.