Publication

Deciphering Usage and Expenditures of Complementary Medicine: A Five-Year Longitudinal Data Analysis of 205,423 Individuals

2025

Abstract

ObjectiveTo identify factors associated with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use, investigate regional patterns, and examine whether CAM usage is associated with decreased expenditures in conventional medicine (CM).Participants and MethodsWe conducted a retrospective analysis of Swiss health insurance claims data from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2021, including mandatory health insurance (MHI) and supplementary insurance (SI) schemes. We analyzed 816,080 person-years from 205,423 Swiss residents with dual coverage using 2-part multilevel models and geographic clustering analyses.ResultsCAM utilization differed markedly between schemes: 59% (481,176 of 816,080) used CAM (SI) while 2.2% (18,023) used CAM (MHI). Women had nearly double the odds of CAM (MHI) usage (adjusted odds ratio, 1.97; P

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/e79adfa0-1c91-44c4-bd69-829ad689271c

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2025

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/e79adfa0-1c91-44c4-bd69-829ad689271c

About this result

Related concepts (31)

Health insurance

Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among many individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health risk and health system expenses over the risk pool, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to provide the money to pay for the health care benefits specified in the insurance agreement.

Insurance

Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss. An entity which provides insurance is known as an insurer, insurance company, insurance carrier, or underwriter. A person or entity who buys insurance is known as a policyholder, while a person or entity covered under the policy is called an insured.

Alternative medicine

Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability or evidence of effectiveness. Unlike modern medicine, which employs the scientific method to test plausible therapies by way of responsible and ethical clinical trials, producing repeatable evidence of either effect or of no effect, alternative therapies reside outside of medical science and do not originate from using the scientific method, but instead rely on testimonials, anecdotes, religion, tradition, superstition, belief in supernatural "energies", pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda, fraud, or other unscientific sources.