Use and Expenditure on Complementary Medicine in England: A Population Based Survey, 1998
Investigators: Kate Thomas, Jon Nicholl, Patricia Coleman, & Christian Stacey

Use and Expenditure on Complementary Medicine in England was a population-based, cross-sectional, mail survey of adults in England. The survey was conducted in 1998 by researchers at the Medical Centre Research Unit, School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield. The survey was conducted to generate reliable population-based estimates of use of practitioner-provided complementary therapies in England in 1998.

A two-stage stratified random sampling design was used to select eligible participants. A systematic 1 in 1300 random sample of adults was selected from a geographically stratified random sample of 12 English health authority populations, resulting in a random sample of 5,010 English adults. A previously piloted mail questionnaire was sent to sample members. The survey collected information on lifetime use and use in the past 12 months of specific types of complementary therapies and over-the-counter remedies. Information was also collected on the most recent visit to a complementary therapy provider, including reason for visit, expenditures, insurance, and location of treatment. The dataset contains 139 variables collected from 2,668 respondents.