A 20-year analysis of health care treatment released Wednesday revealed a significant rise in use of complementary health approaches, such as yoga and meditation, especially for pain management.
The analysis, conducted by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the percentage of individuals who reported using at least one of seven alternative approaches to care increased from 19.2% in 2002 to 36.7% in 2022.
For pain management, the use of alternative therapies increased from 42.3% in 2002 to 49.2% in 2022.
Researchers utilized data from the 2002, 2012 and 2022 National Health Interview Survey to evaluate changes in the use of seven complementary health approaches, including yoga, meditation, massage therapy, chiropractic care, acupuncture, naturopathy and guided imagery/progressive muscle relaxation.