A third of Russians don’t know what “homeopathy”
Among all respondents who gave a particular definition of “homeopathy”, according to the poll, 32% believe in the positive effect.
MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. A third of Russians don’t know what the word “homeopathy”, about the fifth part of it at all did not hear, but more than half of those who used homeopathic remedies, do not agree with the Memorandum of the Commission of Sciences “On the false scientific character of homeopathy”. This is evidenced by the results of a survey of the all-Russia centre of studying of public opinion (VTSIOM), published on the website of the organization.
Opinions were divided
“17% of respondents did not know about the existence of the concept of “homeopathy” to participate in the survey, another third (33%) have heard the word but don’t know what it is”, — it is told in message VTSIOM.
As a rule, they imagine that it refers to medicine (15% — “cure from natural remedies”, 9% — “therapeutic agent”, etc.), but the exact definition can not give. Fixed 1% of the answers are “treating like with like”, 1% “treatment of minimal doses of the disease”, 4% — “treatment with minimal doses of healing remedies”, 3% said it was pseudoscience and quackery.
Sociologists point out that the share of respondents among those who know, in their words, what is homeopathy, those who used homeopathic remedies personally or said that were used by their relatives 49%, or 23% of all those surveyed. In addition, these people mostly believe in the effectiveness of homeopathy — 42% say that homeopathy helped often, 25% sometimes and 27% reported that, as a rule, she did not give a positive result.
Among all respondents who gave a particular definition of “homeopathy” (46%), the effectiveness of homeopathic remedies is estimated rather low: 45% believe that they do not contribute to the recovery of patients, and the positive effect I believe 32%.
“The proposal of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ban homeopathy in public hospitals, while in pharmacies not to sell homeopathic remedies in the guise of medication) is supported by 46% of Russians, who have some understanding of homeopathy. At the same time speak out against the initiative, 46%, and more than others not agree with people who have used homeopathy (themselves or family members) — 57%, and among them even more those who comment on its effectiveness (74%)” , — stated in the message.
The initiative Russian opinion poll held on 8 and 9 February 2017 by telephone interviews. The sample size of 1,200, the maximum error with 95% probability does not exceed 3.5%.
The Memorandum of the Commission of Sciences
Homeopathy a form of alternative medicine, the main methods which were formulated in the eighteenth century by the German physician Christian Hahnemann, it is the application of solutions containing ultra-low doses of active substance.
The Commission of Sciences to combat pseudoscience and falsification of scientific research has published a Memorandum “On the false scientific character of homeopathy”, inviting the Ministry of health of the Russian Federation to bring the appropriate medications in use in public hospitals, the Federal Antimonopoly service to prevent false advertising of their medicinal properties, the pharmacies not to spread homeopathy in conjunction with traditional medicine and does not recommend it to buyers.
The head of the Ministry of health of Russia Veronika Skvortsova reported that the Agency creates a working group to discuss the future of homeopathy and ready to do it impartially.