• Jessica Bayes, John Palencia, and Jon Wardle.
• National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine (NCNM), Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University, East Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia.
• Mil Med. 2024 May 18; 189 (5-6): e1318e1335e1318-e1335.

IntroductionActive duty military personnel and veterans have unique and complex health needs, with the high demands of military life often leading to chronic physical and mental health conditions. Complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) could be a possible solution to this problem. Some military health systems have started integrating CIM into health care delivery. However, there has been no systematic evaluation of the prevalence and utilization of CIM in military and veteran populations globally.Materials And MethodsA Preferred Reporting Items For Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols protocol was used to systematically search for original research assessing the prevalence and utilization of CIM among active serving military or veterans. CINAHL, MEDLINE, Scopus, and AMED databases were searched up to February 3, 2023.ResultsA total of 27 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review. The overall quality of evidence was high with a low risk of bias. Utilization of CIM varied. The lowest utilization demonstrated that only 1.9% of services delivered by military health system were CIM. The majority of studies found utilization rates between 30% and 80%, with some studies reporting use as high as 90%. The most commonly used CIM therapies included chiropractic care, massage, mindfulness/meditation, and acupuncture. Utilization of CIM products was high and ranged from 32% to 87%. The most frequently used products were dietary supplements, particularly multivitamins and minerals and protein supplements/amino acids. The use of herbal products was high among veterans ranging from 10% to 79%.ConclusionsThe high demand for CIM by military personnel and veterans has important implications for policy, funding allocation, and integration of these services into clinical practice, particularly by countries not currently doing so. Further research is needed to assess the implementation of CIM into real-world settings to explore barriers and facilitators for their use in clinical practice and, by extension, their integration into the wider health care system.© The Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2023. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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