Complementary Therapies in Medicine (2014) 22, 894—902 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect j ourna l ho me pa g e: www.elsevierhealth.com/journals/ctim The use of conventional and complementary therapies for insomnia among Hong Kong Chinese: A telephone survey Wing-Fai Yeung a , Ka-Fai Chung b,* , Kam-Ping Yung b , Fiona Yan-Yee Ho b , Lai-Ming Ho c , Yee-Man Yu b , Chi-Wa Kwok b a School of Chinese Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China b Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China c School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China Available online 8 August 2014 KEYWORDS Insomnia; CAM; Conventional medicine; Complementary; Alternative; Prevalence; Chinese; Sleep Summary Objective: To examine the prevalence and utilization pattern of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for insomnia in Hong Kong. Methods: Respondents were selected from the general population and interviewed by telephone Their sleep was assessed by a Chinese version of the Brief Insomnia Questionnaire (BIQ) and CAM use by a checklist. Prevalence findings were weighted by the BIQ insomnia diagnosis, age, and sex. Results: 402 respondents completed the survey. The population-weighted prevalence of any treatment in the past 12 months was 21.3%, any CAM use at 12.3%, any conventional treatment at 6.5%, and alcohol use at 1.6%; however, 46.6% of the BIQ insomnia cases did not seek treat- ment. The most commonly used CAM modalities was Chinese herbal medicine (7.9%), followed by acupuncture (1.7%) and Western herbal products (1.7%). Most CAM therapies were used infre- quently and without consultation of healthcare professionals. Only BIQ insomnia diagnosis and being female were found predictive of CAM use. Conclusions: Apart from Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture, the use of conventional treatments, CAM, and alcohol for trouble sleeping was all less common in Hong Kong. Public education on the consequences of insomnia and various treatment modalities is needed. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Department of Psychiatry, The Univer- sity of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China. Tel.: +852 22554487; fax: +852 28551345. E-mail address: kfchung@hkucc.hku.hk (K.-F. Chung). Introduction Insomnia is a prevalent disorder. Nearly one-third of the adult population experience insomnia symptoms and approximately 9—15% have insomnia symptoms accompanied by daytime consequences. 1 Insomnia has http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2014.08.001 0965-2299/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.