TY - JOUR
T1 - Alternative medicine and allergies
T2 - Life satisfaction, health locus of control and quality of life
AU - Schäfer, Torsten
AU - Riehle, Angelina
AU - Wichmann, H. Erich
AU - Ring, Johannes
N1 - Funding Information:
We like to thank all participants of the study and the survey team, namely K. Papke and Drs. B. Giesecke and R. Holle from the GSF National Research Centre for Environment and Health. We are grateful for the methodological contributions and the critical revising of the manuscript of Prof. Lohaus (University of Marburg) and Dr. Henrich (Technical University Munich). We also like to acknowledge the support of Dr. Linde from the Münchner Modell (Centre for Complementary Medicine Research).
PY - 2003/12
Y1 - 2003/12
N2 - Objective: Little is known on psychosocial characteristics of subjects with allergies who use or do not use alternative medicine (AM). We aimed to assess health-related quality of life (QoL), life satisfaction and health locus of control of adults with allergies and to compare users and nonusers of AM in a population-based setting. Methods: In a population-based nested case control study, computer-assisted telephone interviews were performed in subjects (n=351, age median 46 years, response 76.1%) who had reported allergies (hay fever, asthma, atopic eczema and food hypersensitivity) in a previous survey. Questions on health-related QoL and evaluated instruments measuring life satisfaction ("Questions on Life Satisfaction" (FLZM)) and health locus of control ("Fragebogen zur Erhebung von Kontrollü berzeugungen zu Krankheit und Gesundheit" (KKG)) were applied. Results: A total of 93 subjects (26.6%), who were younger and better educated than the remaining participants (n=257), reported experiences with AM. General and health-related life satisfaction was not statistically different between users (71.5 and 71.6) and nonusers (68.5 and 67.0) of AM. Nonusers scored significantly higher for fatalistic externality (21.6) than users (19.0) of AM (P=.005, adjusted age, gender and school education). The impact on overall health-related QoL was significantly higher for users (11.7) than nonusers (10.3) of AM. This difference was also significant for the domains "physical," "psychological," "friends and family" and "leisure activities" (adjusted P<.001). Conclusion: Users and nonusers of AM with allergies can be distinguished by psychosocial characteristics such as health locus of control and QoL.
AB - Objective: Little is known on psychosocial characteristics of subjects with allergies who use or do not use alternative medicine (AM). We aimed to assess health-related quality of life (QoL), life satisfaction and health locus of control of adults with allergies and to compare users and nonusers of AM in a population-based setting. Methods: In a population-based nested case control study, computer-assisted telephone interviews were performed in subjects (n=351, age median 46 years, response 76.1%) who had reported allergies (hay fever, asthma, atopic eczema and food hypersensitivity) in a previous survey. Questions on health-related QoL and evaluated instruments measuring life satisfaction ("Questions on Life Satisfaction" (FLZM)) and health locus of control ("Fragebogen zur Erhebung von Kontrollü berzeugungen zu Krankheit und Gesundheit" (KKG)) were applied. Results: A total of 93 subjects (26.6%), who were younger and better educated than the remaining participants (n=257), reported experiences with AM. General and health-related life satisfaction was not statistically different between users (71.5 and 71.6) and nonusers (68.5 and 67.0) of AM. Nonusers scored significantly higher for fatalistic externality (21.6) than users (19.0) of AM (P=.005, adjusted age, gender and school education). The impact on overall health-related QoL was significantly higher for users (11.7) than nonusers (10.3) of AM. This difference was also significant for the domains "physical," "psychological," "friends and family" and "leisure activities" (adjusted P<.001). Conclusion: Users and nonusers of AM with allergies can be distinguished by psychosocial characteristics such as health locus of control and QoL.
KW - Allergy
KW - Alternative medicine
KW - Health locus of control
KW - Life satisfaction
KW - Quality of life
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=1042301116&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0022-3999(03)00015-1
DO - 10.1016/S0022-3999(03)00015-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 14642985
AN - SCOPUS:1042301116
SN - 0022-3999
VL - 55
SP - 543
EP - 546
JO - Journal of psychosomatic research
JF - Journal of psychosomatic research
IS - 6
ER -
