Use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): results from a German nationwide survey of 2019 compared to a previous survey of 2002

Abstract

Introduction

In 2002, 50% of patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) had used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Germany. This survey aimed to examine changes from 2002 to 2019 and predictors of CAM use in 2019.

Materials and methods

In 2019, a questionnaire was sent randomly to 1000 members of the German Crohn’s Colitis Association, the same sampling strategy was chosen 2002. Items assessed included, demographic characteristics, IBD diagnosis and disease history, medication use, patients’ symptoms/quality of life, anxiety/depression and use of complementary therapies.

Results

The 2019 sample only differed slightly in case of gender (55% women) and disease (43% Ulcerative Colitis) from the 2002 sample. In 2019, 54% (227/417) reported having ever used CAM and 75% (396/417) planned to use CAM for their IBD in the future, whereby there was an evidence of a decrease in exclusive CAM use from 2002 (28%; 96/344) to 2019 (16%, 37/277; BF<.01). In logistic regression analyses, ulcerative colitis compared to Crohn’s Disease (OR 0.59, p=.005), side effects of standard therapy (OR 1.94, p=.012), the use of corticosteroids (OR 0.54, p=.038) or biologics (OR 1.90, p = .020) and lower quality of life (OR 0.96, p=.002) were associated with CAM use in 2019.

Conclusions

Every other patient with IBD used CAM and has thus indicated a need for a safe and evidence-based combination of conventional and complementary approaches. This would further support the desired decrease in exclusive -alternative- CAM use.

Keywords:

• Inflammatory bowel disease
• ulcerative colitis
• Crohn’s disease
• complementary and alternative medicine
• cross-sectional
• Germany

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the German Crohn’s and Colitis Association (DCCV e.V.) for their financial and administrative support throughout the study and the funding for the Chair of Integrative Medicine, the individual survey respondents who donated their time to complete our study questionnaire, as well as Winfried Haueser, Romy Lauche, Tanja Neufeld and Dorit Schroeder for their commitment and support and the students Mr. Tobias Josef, Ms. Luise Leithäuser, Ms. Zoe Scott, Ms. Linda Soliman, Ms. Verena Thomann, Ms. Vivien Vorndran, Ms. Ina Weritz, and Ms. Zoe Wörner for their assistance.

Author contributions

Conceptualization, JL, LK; analysis, NB, LK; writing manuscript, NB, LK, CS, CU, ÖÖ, JL; supervision, JL; project administration, JL, LK; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

J. L. was a speaker for Repha GmbH, Techlab Inc., Falk Foundation, Takeda, Celegene GmbH and Willmar Schwabe and received research funding from Repha GmbH, Techlab Inc, Falk Foundation and Willmar Schwabe. The sponsors had no role in the design, execution, interpretation or writing of the study. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The questionnaire and datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author JL upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the on-board funds of the chair for Integrative Medicine.