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Køn, sundhed og KAB ---

Gender, health and CAM

Nina Nissen, PhD Associate Professor

Department of Public Health, SDU

FS-KAB Landsmøde 7/10/2017

Overview

§  Use of CAM – who, how and why §  Surveys and literature §  2 examples

§  Practice of CAM – who, how and why §  Surveys and literature §  A tentative suggestion

§  Discussion

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Use of CAM – who? how? zoneterapi

Manipulative therapies

acupuncture

From: Susy 2013

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Use of CAM – why?

Users’ motivations to use CAM in relation to: §  Health and illness

§  To alleviate chronic and/or life-threatening conditions §  To improve overall wellbeing §  To address specific symptoms §  To do something for oneself

§  The quality of CAM §  The positive provider-patient relationship §  The patient-centred and holistic approach

Patients’ perspectives

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Use of CAM – why?

Healthcare system §  Dissatisfaction with biomedical care §  Less trust, confidence and reliance on ‘experts’

Qualities of CAM §  Values and beliefs about health and illness §  Shared experiences between (women) practitioner and patient §  ‘Natural’

Changes in society §  Wish to have more control over one’s life, including healthcare §  Thinking about the person more ‘holistically’ §  Increased societal attention on the body and health §  Increased societal expectation to look after one’s health

Social science perspectives

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An ethnographic study of women’s practice and use of western herbal medicine in the UK

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Men’s everyday healthcare and masculinities in Denmark

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Practice of CAM – who? how?

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Practice of CAM – who? how?

♂♀‘talking’ therapies ‘science-orientated’ therapies

A tentative suggestion

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‘Just wait, now that acupuncture is evidence-based, the doctors will make it their own, and start deciding when and when not to use it.’

Johannessen B 2009:150

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Practice of CAM – why?

CAM practitioners §  Wanting to ‘help’ §  Attracted by CAM practices and holistic approaches to

health §  Opportunity to have a career in medicine §  Fits with family commitments §  Positive personal experience of CAM treatment

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Practice of CAM – who? how? why?

Nurses who leave mainstream health services

§  Disillusionment with the health services §  Dissatisfaction with practice/work in health system

§  Opportunity to develop clinical skills §  Attracted by holistic approach to health and healing §  Positive personal experience of CAM treatment

BUT: self-employment and financial uncertainty can be strain

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‘I think the division between cure and care constitutes a factor that hampers registered nurses, who as a result always remain subordinate. Now when I practice CAM, I am independent of this distinction.’

Johannessen B 2009:149

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Discussion

What motivates your interest in CAM/in practicing CAM? What are your hopes and wishes for Integrative medicine in Denmark?

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Tak for i dag J

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References (selected)

Andrews, G. J. (2003). Nurses who left the British NHS for private complementary medical practice: why did they leave? Would they return? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 41(4), 403-415. Flesch, H. (2010). Balancing act: Women and the study of complementary and alternative medicine. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 16(1), 20-25 Johannessen, B. (2009). Why do Norwegian nurses leave the public health service to practice CAM? Complement Ther Clin Pract, 15(3), 147-151. Nissen, N. (2010). Practitioners of Western herbal medicine and their practice in the UK: Beginning to sketch the profession. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 16(4), 181-186. Nissen, N. (2011). Challenging perspectives: Women, complementary and alternative medicine, and social change. Interface: a journal for and about social movements, 3(2), 187-212. Nissen, N., Schunder-Tatzber, S., Weidenhammer, W., & Johannessen, H. (2012). What attitudes and needs do citizens in Europe have in relation to complementary and alternative medicine? Forschende Komplementärmedizin/Research in Complementary Medicine, 19(Suppl 2), 9-17. Nissen, N. (2013). Women's Bodies and Women's Lives in Western Herbal Medicine in the UK. Medical Anthropology, 32(1), 75-91 Susy 2013 http://www.si-folkesundhed.dk/Forskning/Befolkningens%20sundhedstilstand/Sundhed%20og%20sygelighed%20SUSY/SUSY%202013.aspx

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