| Summary: | Purpose: Patients can have difficulties choosing acupuncturists in the UK as they are not currently subject to statutory regulation. A qualitative study explored patients’ experiences of acupuncture. A quantitative vignette study investigated the impact of patient gender and practitioner factors (gender, training location and qualifications) on choice of acupuncturist. Methods: Qualitative study: 35 acupuncture patients (maximum variation sampling) participated in semistructured interviews about their acupuncture experiences (thematic analysis). Quantitative study: 83 participants imagined wanting to consult an acupuncturist for back pain. They rated 8 fictional acupuncturists. Results: Patients wanted qualified, personable acupuncturists and valued recommendations from trusted others. Without such recommendations, potential patients preferred female acupuncturists (F(1,76)=30.63, p<.01) with medical qualifications (F(1,76)=125.72, p<.01), who trained in China (F(1,76)=8.53), p<.01). Conclusions: The decision to consult a particular acupuncturist is not straight forward. Acupuncturists’ trustworthiness and authenticity are important to (potential) patients; practitioner gender also influenced preferences in our participants. Patients need to be informed about forthcoming statutory regulation in CAM and its implications; GPs might be able to better support their patients wanting to consult acupuncturists.
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