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Families’ visits to practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine in a total population (the HUNT studies)

Aims: To investigate characteristics of families with adolescent children who have visited practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Methods: The Nord-Trøndelag Health Studies (HUNT) invited all inhabitants aged 13 years and older to a population-based study. The data of parents and adolescents were merged through the Norwegian family register. A family CAM visitor was a family where either the adolescent or the mother or father had visited a CAM practitioner in the previous year. The data were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression. Results: A total of 7,888 adolescents with mother and/or fathers were included. The prevalence of families visiting CAM practitioners was 19.8%. The odds of a family visiting a CAM practitioner was significantly associated (p < 0.01) with a father with poor self-reported global health (adjusted odds ratio (adjOR) 3.0, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.7—5.3), who exercised (adjOR 1.3, 1.1—1.5) or smoked daily (adjOR 0.7, 0.6—0.8). Family CAM visits were also associated with the mother having a recent health complaint (adjOR 1.4, 1.1—1.7) or having fair global health (adjOR 1.6, 1.2—2.0), or with the adolescent, mother or father having visited a general practitioner during the past year (adolescent adjOR 1.3, 1.2—1.5; mother 1.7, 1.5—2.0; father 1.4, 1.2—1.6). For family visits to a homeopath, the strongest association was the mother having visited a general practitioner (adjOR 1.9, 1.4—2.5). For visits to chiropractors the strongest association was whether the father was currently working (adjOR 2.1, 1.2—3.8). Conclusions: The factor most strongly associated with families’ visits to CAM practitioners was a father who had poor self-reported health.