AARP publishes report on alternative and complementay medicine
Do Americans age 50 and older talk with their physicians about theiruse of complementary and
alternative medicine (CAM) — diverse medicaland health care systems, practices, and products not presentlyconsidered part of conventional medicine including herbal supplements,meditation, chiropractic, and acupuncture? In the spring of 2006, AARP and the National Center forComplementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the NationalInstitutes of Health partnered to measure CAM use among older Americansand to understand communication practices between patients and theirphysicians. They found that people between the ages of 50 and 59 arethe most likely to report CAM use. While 63 percent of the 1,559 age 50+ individuals surveyed have usedone or more CAM therapies, 69 percent of those who reported using CAMhad not discussed it with a physician because the physician never asked(42%), they did not know they should (30%), or there was not enoughtime during the office visit (19%). Additional barriers include patientperceptions that physicians are unwilling to discuss CAM therapies orwill react negatively to disclosure of CAM use.