Complementary and conventional medicine in Switzerland: comparing characteristics of general practitioners

Widmer, Marcel; Herren, Sylvia; Dönges, Andreas; Marian, Florica; Busato, André (2006). Complementary and conventional medicine in Switzerland: comparing characteristics of general practitioners. Forschende Komplementärmedizin und klassische Naturheilkunde, 13(4), pp. 234-40. Basel: Karger 10.1159/000094448

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OBJECTIVES: Do structural characteristics of general practitioners (GPs) who practice complementary medicine (CAM) differ from those GPs who do not? Assessed characteristics included experience and professional integration of general practitioners (GPs), workload, medical activities, and personal and technical resources of practices. The investigated CAM disciplines were anthroposophic medicine, homoeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, neural therapy and herbal medicine. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We designed a cross-sectional study with convenience and stratified samples of GPs providing conventional (COM) and/or complementary primary care in Switzerland. The samples were taken from the database of the Swiss medical association (FMH) and from CAM societies. Data were collected using a postal questionnaire. RESULTS: Of the 650 practitioners who were included in the study, 191 were COM, 167 noncertified CAM and 292 certified CAM physicians. The proportion of females was higher in the population of CAM physicians. Gender-adjusted age did not differ between CAM and COM physicians. Nearly twice as many CAM physicians work part-time. Differences were also seen for the majority of structural characteristics such as qualification of physicians, type of practice, type of staff, and presence of technical equipment. CONCLUSION: The study results show that structural characteristics of primary health care do differ between CAM and COM practitioners. We assumed that the activities of GPs are defined essentially by analyzed structures. The results are to be considered for evaluations in primary health care, particularly when quality of health care is assessed.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > Institute for Evaluative Research into Orthopaedic Surgery 04 Faculty of Medicine > Medical Education > Institute of Complementary and Integrative Medicine (IKIM)
UniBE Contributor:	Widmer, Marcel, Marian, Florence, Busato, André
ISSN:	1424-7364
ISBN:	16980771
Publisher:	Karger
Language:	English
Submitter:	Factscience Import
Date Deposited:	04 Oct 2013 14:47
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:14
Publisher DOI:	10.1159/000094448
PubMed ID:	16980771
Web of Science ID:	000241616600005
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/19733 (FactScience: 2665)