African traditional health practitioners are an important source of health care for many South Africans. Thus, they are a health resource in this society. However, the integration of traditional health practitioners into the mainstream of health care is a complex process. Various factors contribute to this complexity, including the skepticism and reservation with which some western health pract...

OBJECTIVES To review the published literature concerning the effects of on-site mental health professionals on general practitioners' management of mental health. DESIGN Systematic review of controlled trials. SETTING Primary care. PARTICIPANTS General practitioners and mental health professionals. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Consultation rates, prescribing of psychotropics, and referrals to ...

Though life expectancy sex differences are decreasing in many Western countries, men experience higher mortality rates at all ages. Men are often reluctant to seek medical care because health help-seeking is strongly linked to femininity, male weakness, and vulnerability. Many men are also more likely to access emergency care services in response to injury and/or severe pain instead of engaging...

OBJECTIVES This article examines consultations with alternative practitioners and the characteristics of people who use such care. DATA SOURCE The data are from the longitudinal (1994/95 to 1998/99) and cross-sectional (1998/99) household components of Statistics Canada's National Population Health Survey (NPHS). ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES Descriptive information about the use of alternative pra...

A full understanding of and a competent approach to dying patients may lead to a more qualitative service delivery, an enhanced quality of life paradigms, and the patients’ well-being, all of which remain the ultimate goal of health care practice. The modern world has developed in parallel with secularism and religious diversity. This paper aims to illustrate the secularization process in Brita...

IMPORTANCE In rural India, as in many developing countries, childhood mortality remains high and the quality of health care available is low. Improving care in such settings, where most health care practitioners do not have formal training, requires an assessment of the practitioners' knowledge of appropriate care and the actual care delivered (the know-do gap). OBJECTIVE To assess the knowle...

OBJECTIVE To describe the characteristics of patients using non-orthodox health care and their pattern of use of conventional health care with respect to a particular problem. DESIGN Postal survey of all 2152 practitioners of acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy, and osteopathy identified from 11 national professional association registers. Patients attending a representative sa...