Alternativmedizin und allergien: Lebenszufriedenheit, kontrollüberzeugung zu gesundheit und krankheit sowie lebensqualität

Background: Little is known on psycho-social characteristics of subjects with allergies who use or do not use alternative medicine (AM). We aimed to assess health-related quality of life, 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, food hypersensitivity) in a previous survey. Questions on health-related quality of life and evaluated instruments measuring life satisfaction (FLZ^M) and health locus of control (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 or health-related life satisfaction were not statistically different between users (71.5, 71.6) and nonusers (68.5, 67.0) of AM. Nonusers scored significantly higher for fatalistic externality (21.6) than users (19.0) of AM (p = 0.005, adjusted for age, gender, school education). The impact on overall health-related quality of life 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<0.001). Conclusion: Users and nonusers of AM with allergies can be distinguished by psychosocial characteristics such as health locus of control and quality of life.