The relationship between experienced benefits and harms of using complementary and integrative health approaches and intention to maintain their use in Finland

Abstract

Background The estimated prevalence of the use of complementary and integrative health (CIH) approaches varies between 24–71% in adult populations worldwide. Little is known about the intention to maintain their use. This study aimed to examine whether the experienced benefits and harms of CIH use, and self-rated health (SRH) relate to the intention to use CIH in the future in current users. Methods A total of 1652 Finnish CIH users completed an online-survey in December 2022, out of which 58.8% intended to use CIH in the future. Binary logistic regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between the intention to use CIH, experienced benefits and harms of CIH use and SRH. Results Having experienced at least one type of benefit from CIH use compared to no experienced benefits was related to the intention to use CIH (OR = 19.3, 95%CI = 11.05 to 33.80). Conversely, having experienced at least one harm from CIH use compared to no harms was inversely related to the intention to use CIH (OR = 0.27, 95%CI = 0.20 to 0.35). Easing of pain or related ailment was found to be the most strongly related benefit to the intention to use CIH. SRH was not found to be statistically significantly related to the intention to use CIH. Conclusions This study highlights the importance of the benefits and harms CIH users experience on the continuation of CIH use. The intention to maintain use relates to everyday effectiveness of CIH experienced by users.