The co-use of conventional drugs and herbs among patients in Norwegian general practice: a cross-sectional study

Table 1 Demographics of all respondents according to herb and drug use; comparison of conventional and non-conventional drug users among herbal users and non-herbal-users, and comparison of co-users with non-co-users (N = 381)

				Current herbal user?						Co-user
				Yes			No			Co-user
				Regular drug user?			Regular drug user?
		n (%)		Yes	No	p-value ^A	Yes	No	p-value ^A	p-value ^C
				(Co-user)	(Herb-only user)		(Drug-only user)	(Non-user)
Gender	Male	124	(33)	18%	11%	0.551	39%	32%	0.085	0.001^B
Gender	Female	249	(65)	34%	16%		33%	16%
Age grouped	<30	50	(13)	20%	20%	<0.001 ^B	18%	42%	<0.001 ^B	0.008 ^B
	30-39	58	(15)	24%	21%		24%	31%
	40-49	52	(14)	12%	29%		37%	23%
	50-59	65	(17)	34%	15%		34%	17%
	60-69	71	(19)	38%	4%		35%	23%
	>70	76	(20)	37%	7%		54%	3%
Education	Compulsory	71	(19)	32%	8%	0.178	46%	13%	0.010 ^B	0.611
	Middle level	170	(45)	28%	15%		29%	27%
	University	129	(34)	26%	18%		36%	20%
Employment	Employed/Off sick	233	(61)	21%	20%	<0.001 ^B	30%	29%	<0.001 ^B	<0.001 ^B
	Disability or retirement pension	129	(34)	40%	5%		47%	9%
	Unemployed/Home	12	(3)	58%	17%		8%	17%
Herbal use	Never	152	(40)				63%	37%	0.533
	Earlier	60	(16)				58%	42%
	Present	164	(44)	66%	34%	0.450
Recommended to use herbs by (n = 110):^D	Friends or family	75	(68)	61%	39%	1.000
	The Physician	5	(5)	80%	20%	0.647
	The shop or pharmacy	32	(24)	59%	41%	0.830
	Read about it in magazines or internet	35	(6)	69%	31%	0.401
	The alternative therapist	7	(32)	43%	57%	0.424
	Other	3	(6)	33%	67%	0.152
Reasons for herb use (n = 111):^D	Better life expectancies	47	(3)	62%	38%	1.000
	Strengthen the immune system	79	(42)	58%	42%	0.391
	Defeat an illness	18	(71)	89%	11%	0.008 ^B
	Better than nothing	7	(16)	29%	71%	0.106
	Pain relief	4	(6)	50%	50%	1.000
	Other	3	(4)	100%	0%	0.280
Reasons for not using herbs (n = 177):	Never considered it	69	(3)				51%	49%	0.002^B
	No need/Satisfied with the treatment I get	52	(39)				58%	42%
	Do not believe in it/ seems unsafe	56	(29)				80%	20%

^AP-value for comparison of conventional drug user with not conventional drug user. Analysed with Pearson Chi-Square or Fisher exact test.
^Bp < 0.05.
^CP-value for comparison of co-users with non-co-users. Analysed with Pearson Chi-Square or Fisher exact test.
^DMultiple answers were possible.

ISSN: 2662-7671