Sámi traditional medicine and complementary and alternative medicine – a descriptive study of use within the Sámi population of Sweden

Figures & data

Figure 1. Selection of study population. From an originally population of Sámi in Sweden defined through three registers (n = 10,380), persons were excluded due to over-coverage (N = 1,055), abstaining from participating (n = 5,470), did not self-identify as Sámi (n = 121) or did not answer survey questions on health practices in the SámiHET study (n = 17) were excluded, resulting in a final study population of 3,641 persons.

Table 1. Cross tabulation of the number of participants by practice of Sámi Traditional Medicine (STM, ever users) and Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM, users last 3 months).

		STM		Total STM (%)
		No (%)	Yes (%)
CAM	No	2571 (70.6)	705 (19.4)	3276 (90.0)
	Yes	241 (6.6)	124 (3.4)	365 (10.0)
Total CAM		2812 (77.2)	829 (22.8)	3641 (100)

Table 2. Basic characteristics of the total sample and among users and non-users of STM (ever users) and CAM (users during last 3 months).

	Total sample		STM users		Non-STM users		P-value	CAM users		Non-CAM users		P-value
	%	n	%	n	%	n	Chi^2	%	n	%	n	Chi^2
Age, years (mean)	53.7	3641	52.2	829	54.2	2812	0.003*	50.2	365	54.1	3276	≤0.001*
Sex		3641		829					365
Men	43.4	1580	33.2	275	46.4	1305		38.1	139	44.0	1441
Women	56.6	2061	66.8	554	53.6	1507	≤0.001	61.9	226	56.0	1835	0.03
Income (tertiles)		3639		829					365
Low	33,3	1212	41.9	347	30.8	865		29.0	106	33.8	1106
Medium	33,3	1213	32.2	267	33.7	946		32.9	120	33.4	1093
High	33,3	1214	25.9	215	35.6	999	≤0.001	38.1	139	32.8	1075	0.03
Civil status		3641		829					365
Living with a spouse	42.6	1552	39.2	325	43.6	1227	0.02	40.5	148	42.9	1404	0.4
Education		3635		827					364
Primary	33.8	1230	27.4	227	35.7	1003		31.6	115	34.1	1115
Secondary	37.6	1366	40.7	337	36.6	1029		35.7	130	37.8	1236
Post-secondary	28.6	1039	31.8	263	27.6	776	≤0.001	32.7	119	28.1	920	0.1
Region		3641		829					365
Norrbotten	47.8	1741	62.7	520	43.4	1221		39.7	145	48.7	1596
Västerbotten	22.7	828	13.0	108	25.6	720		24.7	90	22.5	738
Jämtland	7.0	255	7.2	60	6.9	195		7.1	26	7.0	229
Other	22.4	817	17.0	141	24.0	696	≤0.001	28.5	104	21.8	713	≤0.001
*Siida member		3595		822					361
Mountain	29.5	1060	47.3	389	24.2	671		29.9	108	29.4	952
Forrest	9.8	354	7.5	62	10.5	292		11.4	41	9.7	313
Concession	1.4	50	1.7	14	1.3	36		0.8	3	1.5	47
None	59.3	2131	43.4	357	64.0	1774	≤0.001	57.9	209	59.4	1922	0.6
Language		3588		824					361
Speaking	22.9	820	39.9	329	17.8	491	≤0.001	15.0	54	23.7	766	≤0.001
Linguistic affiliation		3641		829					365
North Sámi	38.3	1396	58.5	485	32.4	911	≤0.001	32.6	119	39.0	1277	0.02
Lule Sámi	15.1	550	16.9	140	14.6	410	0.1	16.7	61	14.9	489	0.4
Pite Sámi	3.9	141	2.9	24	4.2	117	0.1	5.5	20	3.7	121	0.09
Ume Sámi	10.1	369	5.1	42	11.6	327	≤0.001	11.2	41	10.0	328	0.5
South Sámi	22.2	808	16.5	137	23.9	671	≤0.001	22.7	83	22.1	725	0.8

Independent sample T-test was used for this analysis since the variable was continuous.

Table 3. Health-related issues in the total sample and among users and non-users of STM (ever users) and CAM (users during last 3 months).

	Total sample		STM users		Non-STM users		P-value	CAM users		Non-CAM users		P-value
	%	n	%	n	%	n	Chi	%	n	%	n	Chi^2
Self-reported health		3633		827		2806			365		3268
Poor	26.4	958	31.7	262	24.8	696		29.6	108	26.0	850
Good	73.6	2675	68.3	565	75.2	2110	≤0.001	70.4	257	74.0	2418	0.1
Hypertension		3628		827		1933			364		2266
Yes	29.9	1085	26.2	217	30.9	868	0.009	23.9	87	30.6	998	0.008
Asthma		3618		827		2262			362		2591
Yes	20.7	748	26.5	219	19.0	529	≤0.001	22.9	83	20.4	665	0.3
Allergy		3615		826		1731			365		1940
Yes	41.2	1488	52.1	430	37.9	1058	≤0.001	48.8	178	40.3	1310	0.002
Diabetes		3621		825		2580			362		3012
Yes	7.3	266	6.1	50	7.7	216	0.1	5.2	19	7.6	247	0.1
Obesity		3590		821		2234			363		2597
Yes	19.4	696	19.6	161	19.3	535	0.8	18.2	66	19.5	630	0.8
Depression		3631		827		2322			365		2654
Yes	19.6	710	27.6	228	17.2	482	≤0.001	26.8	98	18.7	612	≤0.001
Insomnia		3612		824		1808			364		2071
Yes	37.6	1359	46.0	379	35.2	980	≤0.001	50.0	182	36.2	1177	≤0.001
Isolation		3598		822		2564			363		2973
Yes	8.0	288	9.2	76	7.6	212	0.1	7.2	26	8.1	262	0.5