Objective: The prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in patients with various urologic disorders is unknown. We conducted the survey to determine the prevalence of CAM use in ambulatory patients.
Methods: We distributed questionnaires to 331 ambulatory patients with various urologic disorders in our department from March 10 to 31, 2004.
Results: One in third (30.5%) patients reported the use of at least one CAM. Patient age and gender were not associated with the frequency of the use of CAM. Although not statistically significant, patients with malignant disease showed a higher frequency of CAM use compared with patients with benign disease; 36.2% vs 27.0%, P=0.08. Among the CAM users, only 16 patients (15.8%) informed health care staff of their CAM use.
Conclusion: This result shows the current situation of CAM use in patients with urologic disorders. Because of the high prevalence, health care professionals should ask about patients' use of CAM.

Purpose: We held workshops (WSs) that recommend the use of advance care planning (ACP) for medical and health care professionals, and clarified whether or not these WSs motivated them to engage in their own ACP using two indicators: the proportion of professionals who wanted to conduct ACP and changes in the Death Attitude Inventory (DAI). Method: After the WS, we divided participants into two groups, depending on whether or not they wanted to have end-of-life discussions with their family and loved ones. The changes in the DAI brought about by the WSs and their impressions of the WS were compared between the groups. Results: A total of 91 participants were analyzed, of which 42 (46.2%) wanted to have end-of-life discussions with their family and loved ones. In both groups, “afterlife view” and “death anxiety and fear” in the DAI were significantly reduced after the WS when compared to attitudes from before the WS. In the group which wanted to have end-of-life discussions, “death avoidance” (effect size −0.42) and “sense of purpose in life” (effect size 0.51) changed significantly and positively. Conclusion: About half of the participants wanted to perform ACP after having attended the WSs, apparently due to an increased sense of purpose in life and a reduced death avoidance.