2018 Volume 44 Issue 1 Pages 49-53
Recently, the use of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) has been increasing in Japan. There are few reports on the use of CAM such as health foods and supplements in cancer patients despite the high interest in it. In this study, we performed a retrospective research to elucidate factors influencing the use of health foods and supplements in cancer patients. The objectives were inpatients diagnosed with cancer at Gifu Municipal Hospital between October 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015. Survey items were age, gender, information on cancer, history of chemotherapy and operation, prescription drugs, and health foods and supplements at admission. A multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the influence of survey items on the use of health foods and supplements. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Patients using health foods and supplements were 5.8％ (59/1,012). The use rate of health foods and supplements is significantly high in recurrent patients [odds ratio (OR), 4.83; 95％ confidence interval (CI), 2.55-9.15; P < 0.001] and is significantly low in patients receiving operation [OR, 0.363; 95％ CI, 0.197-0.667; P = 0.001]. In this study, it was clarified that recurrent cancer patients more frequently use health foods and supplements, and that cancer patients undergoing surgery use them less frequently.
