ArticleBMC complementary medicine and therapies2020
Predictors of the use and approval of CAM: results from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS).
Article in BMC complementary medicine and therapies, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of complementary and alternative medicine use during pregnancy in Iran.BMJ open · 2026Pooled it
- Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Among Patients Undergoing Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in the Endoscopy Unit of a Tertiary-Care Hospital.Patient preference and adherence · 2025Article
- Article
- Use of complementary and alternative medicine in patients with chronic liver diseases in Germany- a multicentric observational study.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2024Observational
- The Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine among Peritoneal Dialysis Patients at a Second-Level Hospital in Yucatán Mexico.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Awareness and use of home remedies in Italy's alps: a population-based cross-sectional telephone survey.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2022Article
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Abstract
backgroundMany studies have shown that sociodemographic variables significantly predict the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), although these predictions were not particularly strong. A multitude of predictors of the use or approval of CAM have been investigated in the field of personal values and worldviews, but the effects were small or doubtful due to non-representative samples. More recent psychological research has linked positive attitudes towards CAM with intuitive thinking, paranormal beliefs, ontological confusions and magical health beliefs, suggesting a common thinking style behind all these variables. The aim of this study is to identify the most important predictors of the use and approval of CAM.
methodsWe performed a canonical correlation analysis on all 3480 records from the 2012 German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) with the lifetime use and opinion of CAM as the dependent variables.
resultsApproval of paranormal practices such as fortune-telling, dowsing or spiritualism explained 32% of the variance in the dependent canonical variate "approval of CAM", while sociodemographic variables explained only 2%. Experience with paranormal practices explained 17% of the variance in the dependent canonical variate "experience with CAM", and sociodemographic variables explained 10% of the variance. Traditional religiosity, attitudes towards science and post-materialist values showed no relevant correlations with the dependent canonical variates.
conclusionsParanormal beliefs and related measures are the most important known predictors of the use and approval of CAM. Experience with paranormal practices not only indicates paranormal beliefs but also explains experience with CAM that cannot be explained by approval of CAM. Female gender and higher socioeconomic status predict experience with CAM without predicting approval of CAM, but their influence should not be overstated.
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