ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Very little is known about the range of diagnoses, course of treatment and long-term outcome in elderly patients who choose to receive homeopathic medical treatment. We investigated homeopathic practice in an industrialised country under everyday conditions.The aim of the study was to determine the spectrum of diagnoses and treatments, as well as to describe the course of illness over time among older patients who chose to receive homeopathic treatment. METHODS: In this subgroup analysis of a prospective, multicentre cohort study totally including 3981 patients treated by homeopathic physicians in primary care practices in Germany and Switzerland, data was analysed from all patients > 70 years consulting the physician for the first time. The main outcome measures were: assessment by patient of the severity of complaints (numeric rating scales) and quality of life (SF-36) and by the physician of the severity of diagnoses (numeric rating scales) at baseline, and after 3, 12, and 24 months. RESULTS: A total of 83 patients were included in the subgroup analysis (41% men, mean age 73.2 +/- (SD) 3.1 years; 59% women, 74.3 +/- 3.8 years).98.6 percent of all diagnoses were chronic with an average duration of 11.5 +/- 11.5 years. 82 percent of the patients were taking medication at baseline.The most frequent diagnoses were hypertension (20.5%, 11.1 +/- 7.5 years) and sleep disturbances (15.7%, 22.1 +/- 25.8 years).The severity of complaints decreased significantly between baseline and 24 months in both patients (from 6.3 (95%CI: 5.7-6.8) to 4.6 (4.0-5.1), p < 0.001) and physicians' assessments (from 6.6 (6.0-7.1) to 3.7 (3.2-4.3), p < 0.001); quality of life (SF 36) and the number of medicines taken did not significantly change. CONCLUSION: The severity of disease showed marked and sustained improvements under homeopathic treatment, but this did not lead to an improvement of quality of life. Our findings might indicate that homeopathic medical therapy may play a beneficial role in the long-term care of older adults with chronic diseases and studies on comparative effectiveness are needed to evaluate this hypothesis.
Subject(s)
Aged , Homeopathy/methods , Homeopathy/trends , Aged/physiology , Aged/psychology , Aged, 80 and over , Aging/physiology , Aging/psychology , Cohort Studies , Female , Germany/epidemiology , Humans , Hypertension/epidemiology , Hypertension/therapy , Long-Term Care/methods , Long-Term Care/trends , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Prospective Studies , Quality of Life , Sleep Wake Disorders/epidemiology , Sleep Wake Disorders/therapy , Switzerland/epidemiologyABSTRACT
El propósito del presente trabajo es comprobar si la práctica de yoga, especialmente adaptada para Adultos Mayores aplicada a ellos como método educativo no formal y herramienta de la gerontología, produce una mejora en su Satisfacción de Vida. Se tomó una muestra compuesta por 33 sujetos mayores de 50 años participantes sistemáticos de los cursos de gimnasia yoga en el periodo comprendido entre abril de 2002 y junio de 2004, quedando así una muestra heterogénea constituida por personas de ambos sexos, de distintas profesiones y prácticas sociales de la ciudad de Córdoba. La estrategia metodológica aplicada es de investigación descriptiva, adoptando un diseño de tipo observacional de series repetidas. Se aplicaron como instrumento de recolección de datos la escala LSIA - Life Satisfacción Index A -, creada por Neugarten, Havighurst y Tobin en la Universidad de Chicago, en EE. UU., en 1961, y modificada por Adams en 1969; una encuesta estructurada de trece preguntas cerradas y una ficha autoadministrada de siete preguntas cerradas y una abierta. Los resultados obtenidos de la cuantificación de la escala, ponen en evidencia un mejoramiento en el nivel de Satisfacción de Vida total y tres de sus subescalas (Deleite o gusto por la vida SD, Estado de ánimo SA y Congruencia entre objetivos y logros SC), tanto en general como en relación con las diferentes características de los sujetos.