| Literature DB >> 31083699 |
Jaime Pinilla1,2, Alejandro Rodriguez-Caro1.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To compare the differences in the use of healthcare services: visits to the doctor and hospitalisation, performance of routine tests, and preventive influenza vaccination, between users and non-users of homeopathic products.Entities:
Mesh:
Substances:
Year: 2019 PMID: 31083699 PMCID: PMC6513046 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216707
Source DB: PubMed Journal: PLoS One ISSN: 1932-6203 Impact factor: 3.240
Variables which define the treatment group and the control group.
| No drug use in the past two weeks | Don’t Know/No Answer | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1. Use only homeopathy products | C. Use only conventional medicines | T2. Use both | |||
| 2011 | 7 | 13,279 | 224 | 7,493 | 4 |
| 2014 | 71 | 13,452 | 209 | 9,089 | 21 |
| 2017 | 31 | 13,834 | 123 | 9,093 | 8 |
Treatment group = T1+T2 Control group = C.
Factors associated with the use of homeopathy in the past two weeks.
Estimation by rare event logistic regression incorporating the sampling design weights.
| Variable | OR (95% CI) | p-value | Variable | OR (95% CI) | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | Male | 1 | Education | |||
| Female | 2.22 (1.74–2.82) | <0.01 | No studies finished | 1 | ||
| Age (yr) | 15–24 | 1 | Primary | 1.41 (0.80–2.46) | 0.23 | |
| 25–34 | 0.71 (0.41–1.23) | 0.22 | Secondary | 2.15 (1.29–3.60) | <0.01 | |
| 35–44 | 1.60 (0.96–2.68) | 0.07 | Post-secondary | 2.67 (1.54–4.62) | <0.01 | |
| 45–54 | 1.37 (0.80–2.36) | 0.25 | First stage tertiary | 4.14 (2.44–7.02) | <0.01 | |
| 55–64 | 1.23 (0.68–2.23) | 0.48 | Second stage tertiary | 3.63 (2.10–6.30) | <0.01 | |
| 65–74 | 0.72 (0.38–1.37) | 0.32 | Social Class | |||
| +75 | 0.81 (0.40–1.67) | 0.58 | Professional occupat. | 1 | ||
| Civil status | Single | 1 | Managerial and tech. | 1.04 (0.74–1.46) | 0.81 | |
| Married | 0.82 (0.63–1.06) | 0.13 | Skilled (non-manual) | 0.76 (0.56–1.02) | 0.07 | |
| Widowed | 1.11 (0.70–1.75) | 0.67 | Skilled (manual) | 0.44 (0.30–0.65) | <0.01 | |
| Divorced | 0.96 (0.67–1.39) | 0.84 | Partly-skilled | 0.49 (0.35–0.70) | <0.01 | |
| Self-perceived health status | Unskilled occupat. | 0.32 (0.20–0.50) | <0.01 | |||
| Very good | 1 | Physical activity | ||||
| Good | 1.03 (0.76–1.40) | 0.85 | None | 1 | ||
| Fair | 1.18 (0.82–1.70) | 0.37 | Occasional | 1.51 (1.18–1.94) | <0.01 | |
| Bad | 1.78 (1.09–2.90) | 0.02 | Days a month | 1.75 (1.27–2.40) | <0.01 | |
| Very bad | 1.32 (0.63–2.78) | 0.46 | Days a week | 1.76 (1.27–2.45) | <0.01 | |
| Diseases/condition No | 1 | Asthma | 1.20 (0.85–1.69) | 0.30 | ||
| High blood pressure | 0.71 (0.54–0.94) | 0.02 | Constipation | 1.65 (1.16–2.36) | 0.01 | |
| Diabetes | 0.80 (0.50–1.30) | 0.38 | Chronic depression | 1.13 (0.83–1.55) | 0.43 | |
| Varicose veins | 1.35 (1.05–1.74) | 0.02 | Malignant tumour | 1.60 (1.09–2.36) | 0.02 | |
| Neck disorder | 1.26 (0.99–1.60) | 0.06 | Osteoporosis | 1.49 (1.05–2.10) | 0.03 | |
| Allergy | 1.35 (1.06–1.72) | 0.02 | Thyroid | 1.32 (0.99–1.77) | 0.06 | |
| Year (Survey 2011) | 1 | |||||
| Survey 2014 | 0.92 (0.73–1.16) | 0.50 | ||||
| Survey 2017 | 0.57 (0.44–0.74) | <0.01 | ||||
No obs. = 39,855
Pseudo R2 (McFadden) = 0.12
Likelihood ratio test Pr(>Chi-square) <0.000.
Region of residence coefficients are not presented in the table due to space limitations
Fig 1Density functions of the estimated propensity score.
Differences in the use of healthcare resources between users and non-users of homeopathy.
| Visits to the doctor and hospitalisations | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Uses of homeopathy products | Uses of homeopathy products | ||||||
| Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | ||
| After matching | Before matching | After matching | Before matching | ||||
| (%) and means | N = 609 | N = 609 | N = 38,984 | (%) and means | N = 609 | N = 609 | N = 38,984 |
| General practitioner | Medical specialist | ||||||
| 0 | (66.8) | (63.1) | (60.8) | 0 | (74.2) | (75.4) | (81.2) |
| 1 | (25.1) | (28.1) | (31.1) | 1 | (19.0) | (18.1) | (14.7) |
| 2 | (5.9) | (4.4) | (5.4) | 2 | (4.6) | (4.3) | (2.6) |
| 3 | (1.5) | (2.0) | (1.3) | 3 | (0.3) | (1.3) | (0.8) |
| ≥ 4 | (0.7) | (2.5) | (1.4) | ≥ 4 | (1.8) | (1.0) | (0.7) |
| Average number of visits | 0.44 | 0.54 | 0.52 | Average number of visits | 0.37 | 0.38 | 0.26 |
| Emergency services | N = 609 | N = 609 | N = 38,984 | Hospitalisations | N = 609 | N = 609 | N = 38,984 |
| 0 | (66.3) | (69.3) | (68.4) | 0 | (89.5) | (92.9) | (89.3) |
| 1 | (21.7) | (20.5) | (20.0) | 1 | (8.2) | (5.4) | (8.4) |
| 2 | (5.7) | (4.4) | (6.4) | 2 | (2.0) | (0.8) | (1.6) |
| 3 | (3.1) | (3.6) | (2.5) | 3 | (0.3) | (0.3) | (0.4) |
| ≥ 4 | (3.1) | (2.1) | (2.7) | ≥ 4 | (0.0) | (0.3) | (0.4) |
| Average number of visits | 0.66 | 0.53 | 0.57 | Average number of visits | 0.13 | 0.12 | 0.15 |
| Routine tests | (%) Yes | (%) Yes | N = 459 | N = 459 | N = 21,882 | ||
| Blood cholesterol | (95.6) | (97.4) | (96.1) | Cytology | (91.7) | (88.9) | (76.9) |
| Blood pressure | (97.2) | (98.2) | (97.6) | Mammography | (73.6) | (74.5) | (67.6) |
| Faecal occult blood test | (20.9) | (15.3) | (16.6) | ||||
| Preventive vaccination Influenza | (12.6) | (21.0) | (28.9) | ||||
Statistical contrasts in the effect of homeopathy use on the utilisation of healthcare resources.
Poisson regression and logistic regression, where the models incorporated the sampling design weights.
| Visits to the doctor and hospitalisations | Observ. | Poisson regression | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visits to Generalist (in the past 4 weeks) | 609 | -0.135 | 0.387 |
| Visits to Specialist (in the past 4 weeks) | 609 | 0.067 | 0.520 |
| Visits to emergency services (in the past 12 months) | 609 | -0.045 | 0.592 |
| Hospitalizations (in the past 12 months) | 609 | 0.108 | 0.109 |
| Routine tests (Yes, No) | Logistic regression | ||
| Cytology | 459 | 0.029 | 0.652 |
| Mammography | 459 | -0.009 | 0.878 |
| Blood cholesterol | 609 | -0.008 | 0.748 |
| Blood pressure | 609 | -0.023 | 0.862 |
| Faecal occult blood test | 609 | 0.042 | 0.022 |
| Vaccination against influenza | 609 | -0.094 | <0.001 |