Confidence in natural health claims in decline: Survey
OTTAWA — Confidence in natural health products is dropping in Canada, according to a newly released government tracking survey.
Skepticism about health claims made by the manufacturers of vitamins, herbal supplements and non-prescription drugs has edged up in the last five years, with about half of Canadians (49 per cent) now saying the claims are unproven, up from 46 per cent in 2005.
Meanwhile, the public’s level of confidence in the safety of natural health products due to their natural origins has declined 10 percentage points since 2005, to 42 per cent in 2010 from 52 per cent five years earlier. And in response to a number of related questions, “there is a significant proportion of Canadians who seriously question the safety and quality of natural health products,” the newly released survey of 2,001 Canadians found.
Health Canada commissioned Ipsos Reid to conduct the poll in the fall of 2010 to compare it to the attitudes of Canadians surveyed in 2005.
The department began to track the opinions of Canadians after it created a special directorate to regulate natural health products. Since its creation in 2004, Health Canada has struggled over how best to regulate these products.
Supporters of the industry complain that Health Canada’s approval process is still too cumbersome, since natural health products are less risky than pharmaceutical drugs. But critics say that federal rules grant the natural health industry too much freedom to market its products as effective ways to prevent serious diseases and medical conditions such as cancer and heart disease — even in the absence of proof or with flawed scientific evidence.
The latest survey indicates a negative trend line for the industry, including a “significant” decline in the perceived benefits of using natural health products.
“The strongest benefits associated with natural health products continue to be that (they) can be used to maintain and promote health and that they can be used to treat illness. However, these positive perceptions of natural health products have declined significantly compared to 2005,” the new survey found.
For example, 77 per cent agreed (including 39 per cent who agreed “completely”) in 2005 that natural health products can be used to help maintain or promote health. By 2010, that number dropped to 71 per cent, including 28 per cent who agreed “completely.” A large majority (63 per cent) also agreed in 2010 that natural health products can treat illness, with 23 per cent who “completely” agreed. However, when compared to 2005, the level of support has declined, with 68 per cent agreeing back then, and 31 per cent agreeing strongly.
In the 2010 poll, Health Canada asked for the first time whether Canadians “question the quality of natural health products.”
The results show Canadians are split, with 42 per cent saying they do question their quality and 45 per cent saying they do not. The remaining respondents were neutral.
At the same time, public approval of Health Canada is dropping. In the latest survey, more than half (52 per cent) said the department does a bad a bad job of informing Canadians about natural health products, compared to 42 per cent who thought so in 2005.
Ipsos Reid says the margin of error is within 2.2 points, 19 times out of 20.
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