The Naval Health Research Center recently published an article in the Annals of Epidemiology on the use of complementary and alternative medicine in the military population.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) includes treatments and therapies that are not usually offered by health care providers or taught at medical schools. These treatments include chiropractics, nutritional supplements and massage therapy. CAM use has become increasingly popular in the U.S.

Researchers, led by Isabel Jacobsen at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, used data culled from twelve questions from the 2004-2006 Millennium Cohort Study to determine the characteristics of users of CAM treatments and therapies in the military population.

Forty-one percent of the group surveyed reported using any of 12 popular CAM therapies included in the Millennium Cohort Study. The three most popular therapies for this group were massage therapy, relaxation therapy, and chiropractic care. Of those reporting practitioner-assisted and self-administered CAM, the characteristics included being female, born in 1970 and later, and employed in the health care field. The study also found that CAM users report having a lower perceived health status and greater number of health-related conditions.

Click here to access this article through PubMed

Full article citation: Jacobson IG, White MR, Smith TC, Smith B, Wells TS, Gackstetter GD, Boyko EJ; For The Millennium Cohort Study Team. Self-Reported Health Symptoms and Conditions Among Complementary and Alternative Medicine Users in a Large Military Cohort. Ann Epidemiol. 2009 Jul 11. (Department of Defense Center for Deployment Health Research, Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, CA (I.G.J., M.R.W., T.C.S., B.S.); Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH (T.S.W.); Analytic Services, Inc. (ANSER), Arlington, VA (G.D.G.); and Seattle Epidemiologic Research and Information Center, Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA (E.J.B.).)