Landmark healthcare Inc

Several major surveys of dietary supplement utilization have been conducted recently. The Saskatchewan Nutriceutical Network (SNN) (13), National Nutritional Food Association (NNFA) (14), Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) (11), Landmark Healthcare, Inc. (16), The NMI (18), individual investigators (9,12), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (15), and FDA (10) have all recently either conducted or contracted market analyses of CAM utilization in the United States, which included botanicals. Each survey is presented individually because the data are so heterogeneous among studies. 

In 1997, Landmark Healthcare Inc. commissioned a report entitled The Landmark Report on Public Perceptions of Alternative Care. They conducted 1500 telephone interviews in November 1997, using random digit selection. The survey included a representative sample of minority patients—85%o Caucasian, 8%o African-Americans, and 3% Hispanic. The survey found that 17%o of the U.S. population used botanical dietary supplements in the past year and even more striking, 75 /o of the U.S. population was most likely to use botanical products. Eighty-five percent of those reported to have taken a botanical supplement self-prescribed and self-administered the products. Three-fourths of patients who used alternative forms of care did so in conjunction with conventional medicine, yet 15% of patients replaced their conventional treatment with alternative care (16). 

The Landmark report on public perceptions of alternative care, 1998. Sacramento, California, Landmark Healthcare, Inc. 1998. www.landmarkhealthcare. com (accessed 3-2004). 

---