Prevalence of CAM use by UK climacteric women: a systematic review of surveys

Aims This systematic review is aimed at assessing surveys which monitor the prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use by climacteric women living in the UK. Method Five databases were searched for English-language, peer-reviewed surveys published between 1 January 2000 and 7 October 2011. In addition, the bibliographies of key articles, relevant book chapters and our own departmental files were hand-searched. Results Three surveys were found and they included a total of 3742 climacteric women. All of these surveys were of poor methodological quality. The average prevalence of CAM use was 57.25%. Based on two surveys, 56% of women mentioned they were regular CAM users. The average perceived effectiveness of CAM was 72%. Conclusions There is a paucity of high-quality surveys monitoring the prevalence of CAM use by UK climacteric women. The available evidence suggests that the prevalence of CAM use amongst climacteric women is high. Due to the low methodological quality and paucity of the primary data, these results should be interpreted with caution.