J Altern Complement Med. 2001 Aug; 7(4): 315-28.

Developing and evaluating complementary therapy services: part 2. Examining the effects of treatment on health status.

Richardson J.

School of Integrated Health, University of Westminster, Research Council for Complementary Medicine, London, United Kingdom. janet.richardson@kcl.ac.uk

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect on patient health status of an outpatient service providing acupuncture, osteopathy, and homeopathy. DESIGN: Pragmatic quasiexperimental design with waiting-list control group. SETTING: A district general hospital in the United Kingdom. SUBJECTS: All patients referred to the service during the study period. OUTCOME MEASURES: The Short Form 36-Item Health Status Survey (SF-36). RESULTS: With the exception of the Physical Functioning scale, statistical differences in scores were found between the treatment and control group on all SF-36 scales. Sensitivity analysis designed to deal with nonresponse supports the robustness of the results. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence for the effectiveness of an outpatient acupuncture, osteopathy and homeopathy service in terms of benefits to patients' health status.