In December 2008, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the findings of the National Health Interview Survey (2007), which contained the latest data on the use of complementary and alternative therapies (CAT) by individuals in the United States.1 Overall, CAT use by adults is up more than 2% since the last survey in 2002; that is, 38% of adults report using some form of CAT. However, one of the survey's most notable finding was the use of complementary therapies by children younger than 18 years of age.
Among children using CAT, nearly a quarter of them were white adolescents whose CAT-using parents were educated beyond high school. CAT child users had on average 6 or more diagnosed health conditions for which CAT was used to delay conventional treatments. Among the 10 CAT used by children, natural product use ranked highest including Echinacea, omega 3 fish oil, combination herb pills, and flaxseed oil pills. In addition to natural products, children also used a variety of alternative health systems, including chiropractic, homeopathic, and osteopathic interventions. Diet-based therapies and a variety of relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, yoga, massage, meditation, and progressive relaxation were among the list of CAT used by children. Traditional healers also intervened with a small percentage of the children.
It is not surprising that the children of parents who use CAT are more likely users of these modalities themselves. Parents' promotion of the use of natural products, particularly in children with multiple disorders, may be their way of staving off or ameliorating the often harsh effects of mainstream therapies. This same rationale would explain the use of alternative, less invasive treatment systems such as homeopathy and chiropractic. The use of relaxation modalities by children is very prominent in these findings. It is interesting to speculate on the long-term effects of introducing the regular use of relaxation modalities early in life. Would sustained use of relaxation modalities by children decrease the incidence of normative childhood illness by bolstering the immune system, decreasing anxiety and raising confidence levels, or increasing the focus and organizing capacities of the brain? Would the early adoption of CAT regimens give children a heightened awareness of the power and efficacy of self-care? There is much to learn from these findings. Nurse researchers need to mine these data through the formulation of studies to investigate the use of CAT in specific populations of children. Given current epidemics in childhood obesity, attention disorders, and anxiety and depression in children, it could do no harm for parents and healthcare providers to promote the use of CAT among children, if only for the purpose of building a sense of control and self-responsibility with respect to one's health.
Gloria Ferraro Donnelly, PhD, RN, FAAN
Editor-in-Chief
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