The loss of trust in mainstream medicine among chronically sick patients triggers the use of CAM
Figure 11: Information Interest to health issues according to the client’s experience with CAM (Marstedt)
Regarding Health care and trust van den Brink-Muinen and Rijken (A van den Brink-Muinen) concluded that chronically sick clients turn their heads to alternative medicine, because chronically ill people have a relatively low level of trust in health care. The less trust patients have in health care, the more they will be inclined to use CAM, when controlling for socio-demographic and disease characteristics. However, they trust certified alternative practitioners less than regular health care professionals and non-certified alternative practitioners. Hence trust is a significant predictor of CAM use. Their conclusion is that trust in future health care is a significant predictor of CAM use. Chronically ill people's use of CAM may increase in the near future. Health policy makers should, therefore, be alert to the quality of practicing alternative practitioners, for example by insisting on professional certification. Equally, good quality may increase people's trust in public health care.
In fact the same was true at the end of the 19th century which resulted in the professionalizing of the lay healers. Today due to the pressure of the population the qualification of a Heilpraktiker is higher than 20 years ago.