Political orientation predicts the use of conventional and complementary/alternative medicine: A survey study of 19 European countries

Background: People align their beliefs and behaviors, including those related to health, increasingly along politically ideological lines. Objective: We investigated whether individual political orientation (PO) predicts the use of conventional (CM) and complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) across Europe. Methods: We used cross-sectional samples representative of persons aged 15 and over from 19 European countries (ESS 2015; round 7; N = 35,572). We assessed PO based on participants' vote choice in the most recent national election, using expert ratings of party positioning along five political-ideological dimensions: left-right general; left-right economic; Green/alternative/libertarian vs. Traditional/authoritarian/nationalist; anti-elite; and anti-corruption. Use of CM was defined as having consulted a general practitioner or specialist, and use of CAM as having used acupuncture, acupressure, Chinese medicine, homeopathy, herbal treatment, hypnotherapy, or spiritual healing. Results: Participants with an anti-corruption PO were less likely to use CM and more likely to use CAM than other Europeans. Participants with a Green/alternative/libertarian PO were more likely to use CAM than others. Poorer health moderated the association between anti-corruption PO and CM, such that people in poor health tended to use CM regardless of their political leanings, but health status did not moderate the association be-tween PO and CAM use. Conclusions: The results show that political and socio-cultural views are associated with how the European lay public engages with healthcare and complementary/alternative services, but the relevant boundary lines do not lie along the left-right dimension. People who preferred parties favoring expanded freedoms were more likely to use complementary/alternative services, but likely for other reasons than to seek cures for diseases in a tradi-tional biomedical sense. Concerns about corruption among the lay public may be more relevant for conventional healthcare than has been recognized.