Any difference? Use of a CAM provider among cancer patients, coronary heart disease (CHD) patients and individuals with no cancer/CHD

A total of 8040 men and women aged 29 to 87 in the city of Troms？, Norway filled in a questionnaire developed specifically for the Troms？ V study with questions on life style and health issues. Visits to a CAM provider within the last 12 months and information on cancer, heart attack and angina pectoris (heart cramp) were among the questions. 1449 respondents were excluded from the analyses.Among the 6591 analysed respondents 331 had a prior cancer diagnosis, of whom 7.9% reported to have seen a CAM provider within the last 12 months. This did not differ significantly from neither the CHD group (6.4%, p = 0.402) nor the no cancer/CHD group (9.5%, p = 0.325).According to this study, the proportion of cancer patients seeing a CAM provider was not statistically significantly different from patients with CHD or individuals without cancer or CHD.Cancer patients' self-reported use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasing, [1-3] although studies report substantial differences in the level of use, ranging from 7 [4] to 91% [5]. Younger, highly educated women are the most frequent users [6-8]. Frequent use is also reported among patients with symptoms and symptom progression related to their cancer [9-13].CAM treatment is mostly offered outside the national health care service in Norway and paid out-of-pocket by the patients. Prior to 2004 only physicians and dentists could legally treat cancer patients [14]. The proportion of cancer patients reporting CAM use in Norway varies between 11.1 and 72% [15,16] depending on how CAM is defined [15]. When defined as "at least one visit to a CAM provider during the previous 12 months" the variation narrows down to 16.1% [16] to 22.7% [15].CAM use among cancer patients has rarely been reported in an unselected general population sample, and even more rarely been compared to use among other patient groups in this type of sample [17].Coronary heart disease (CHD) and cancer constituted 58% of all deaths in Norway in