Table 1

Physician and patient attitudes towards complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)

Statement
Agree (%)
Disagree (%)
Neutral/Skipped (%)

Clinical care should integrate the best conventional and CAM practices.*



     Physician
281 (73.8)
29 (7.6)
71 (18.6)
     Patient
196 (40.8)
4 (0.8)
280 (58.3)
CAM includes areas and methods from which conventional medicine could benefit.*



     Physician
279 (73.2)
23 (6.0)
79 (20.7)
     Patient
192 (40.0)
10 (2.1)
278 (57.9)
CAM approaches hold promise for treatment of symptoms, conditions and/or diseases.*



     Physician
226 (59.3)
39 (10.2)
116 (30.5)
     Patient
169 (35.2)
12 (2.5)
299 (62.3)
While a few CAM approaches may have limited health benefits, they have no true impact on treatment of symptoms, conditions and/or diseases.*



     Physician
93 (24.4)
178 (46.7)
110 (28.9)
     Patient
51 (10.6)
129 (26.9)
300 (62.5)
Health professionals should be able to advise their patients about commonly used CAM methods.*



     Physician
259 (68.0)
26 (6.8)
96 (25.2)
     Patient
209 (43.5)
19 (4.0)
252 (52.5)
CAM is a threat to public health.*



     Physician
34 (8.9)
252 (66.1)
95 (24.9)
     Patient
23 (4.8)
205 (42.7)
252 (52.5)
Knowledge about CAM is important to me as a patient.*



     Physician
209 (54.9)
56 (14.7)
116 (30.5)
     Patient
171 (35.6)
20 (4.2)
289 (60.2)

* P-value is for comparison of strongly agree/agree vs. disagree/neutral/skipped; all p values < .001.

Furlow et al. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2008 8:35   doi:10.1186/1472-6882-8-35