PUPILS in Cork have found that alternative medicine is seen as successful by a high proportion of people surveyed, especially by women and those in the 21-40 age group.
Anne O'Dwyer, Vivienne Lee and Sarah Sheehan from Christ King Girls Secondary School distributed 220 questionnaires and had about a 60 per cent response. They discovered that although there was little scientific knowledge of, or data on, how alternative medical treatments worked, this did not prevent people using them.
Of those surveyed, 86 per cent said they had found alternative medical treatments successful. Some 75 per cent of those were female and 51 per cent aged between 21 and 40.
The most popular form of alternative medicine was acupuncture, which was used by 45 per cent of respondents, followed by homoeopathy used by 16 per cent, reflexology used by 13 per cent, with aromatherapy, massage and shiatsu used by smaller groups.
The therapies were used in conjunction with conventional medicine by 49 per cent of respondents, and 92 per cent said they would use alternative medicine again.