European Coalition on
Homeopathic & Anthroposophic
Medicinal Products

Sitemap

One in five Europeans relies on alternatives in addition to classical medicine

The STADA Health Report provides a snapshot of what the people of Europe think about the future of health: one fifth relies on alternative treatments such as homeopathy, acupuncture or functional foods in addition to classical medicine. Serbia, Austria and Switzerland all demonstrate above average openness to such alternatives.

The STADA Health Report 2020 builds on the 2019 report to provide a representative snapshot from twelve European countries on what the people of Europe think about the future of health. The survey, “Do all roads lead to health? How Europe moves towards the future,” was carried out by market research agency Kantar Health and interviewed over 24,000 participants from Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom; this year the report includes a ‘corona special’ with more than 6,000 respondents from six countries.

Some key findings include:

  • 74% of Europeans are satisfied with their own healthcare system. Top scores are found in Switzerland, Austria and Belgium (above 90% each) and the highest rates of dissatisfaction in the Eastern European countries surveyed — Poland, Serbia and Russia (all below 40%).
  • Compared to the previous year, the trust in conventional medicine is growing slightly across Europe: 70% of the respondents trust conventional medicine, compared to 64% in 2019.
  • The openness towards treatments via webcam has risen significantly compared to 2019. Seven in ten Europeans are now open to an examination via webcam, compared to only 54% in 2019.
  • Despite the general move to online, local pharmacies continue to enjoy a high level of confidence amongst respondents: four out of five prefer to receive their drugs from their local pharmacist (collection or delivery) instead of a mail order pharmacy.

The Health Report also studies openness to alternative treatments such as homeopathy and acupuncture – countries where there is above average openness include Serbia (35%), Austria (24%) and Switzerland (23%). This reinforces the findings from the 2019 report that one fifth relies on alternatives such as homeopathy and acupuncture as well as on functional foods such as probiotics in addition to classical medicine. Such methods supplement classical medicine for the majority of people, but do not replace it.  Women are more open to these than men: one in four women swear by it, but only about one in six men. Together with the 27 percent of home remedy followers, more than half of the Europeans trust their own skills when it comes to combatting the first symptoms of an illness. Nine percent in Europe rely on the Internet as a source of information, and two percent on homeopathy for treatment.

For further information