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DOI: 10.1016/j.homp.2013.10.013
Use and knowledge of homeopathic drugs by the general population in spain
Verantwortlicher Herausgeber dieser Rubrik:
Publikationsverlauf
Publikationsdatum:
24. Januar 2018 (online)
Introduction : Homeopathy is already considered as a reality in the daily health practice. More patients and healthcare professionals use it on a daily basis as an effective therapeutic alternative. A pioneer investigation, conducted by Boiron in Spain, has developed the 1st Study on Use and Knowledge of Homeopathy in Spain. Further than the academic value of this study, it has proven to be a useful tool for institutional relationships and media awareness purposes.
Objective : To show the degree of knowledge, use and satisfaction about the use of the homeopathic medicines in the Spanish population.
Material and methods : The study was performed during 2010 and 2011 throughout an online questionnaire applied on a sample of 3,344 people over 18 years old coming from all of the Spanish Regions.
Results : Homeopathy has shown to be a more and more demanded therapeutic alternative; thus, one out of three Spanish people (33%) have already used it to relieve or treat several health problems, and 27% use it on an occasional or regular basis. Navarra, Aragón, Cataluña, Murcia and País Vasco stand out as the Autonomies with a higher percentage of occasional and regular users. According to the collected data, the word Homeopathy is recognized by almost all the sample and 75% of it spontaneously identify the homeopathic treatments as a natural medical therapy. Women stand out for a better knowledge on this therapy than men, and the main female users of Homeopathy are between 30 and 50 year old. The lack of adverse events and effectiveness are the main reasons for the Spanish users to start using homeopathic medicines. Flu, cold, cough, sore throat (52%), bronchitis and ear infection (12%) are the most frequently homeopathy treated pathologies.
Conclusions : Eight out of ten (82%) people using homeopathy are satisfied or very satisfied with the outcome of their treatments, and this figure grows up to 99% in regular patients. In addition, if we take into account that 87% of the users would recommend it to relatives and friends, future can't be any brighter.