Correlates of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in Chicago area children with diabetes (DM).
OBJECTIVE
To correlate complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in children with diabetes mellitus (DM) with DM control and other family or disease characteristics.


METHODS
Parents/guardians of children with DM were interviewed about demographics, clinical characteristics, CAM use, health care beliefs, psychosocial variables, and religious beliefs. The child's hemoglobin A1c (HgbA1c) value from the visit was collected. Statistical analyses included chi(2), Fisher's exact test, and 2-sample t-tests.


RESULTS
106 families with type 1 DM were interviewed. 33% of children tried CAM in the last year; 75% of parents had ever tried CAM. Children most commonly tried faith healing or prayer; parents most commonly tried faith healing or prayer, chiropractic, massage, and herbal teas. Children were more likely to have used CAM if their parents or siblings used CAM or their family was more religious. They were more likely to have discussed CAM with their providers if they used CAM. Parents of child CAM users reported more problems with DM treatment adherence.


CONCLUSIONS
Children with DM used CAM. There were no differences in DM control, demographics, healthcare beliefs, stress, or quality of life between CAM users and non-users. Practitioners should inquire about CAM use to improve DM care for children.
Miller
Jennifer L
JL
University of Chicago, Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Chicago, IL 60613-2521, USA. jlrobbin@yahoo.com
Cao
Dingcai
D
Miller
Jonathan G
JG
Lipton
Rebecca B
RB
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002641:Chicago; D002648:Child; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003469:Culture; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000628:therapy*; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007872:Legal Guardians; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D011788:Quality of Life; D044469:Racial Groups; D012424:Rural Population; D013383:Suburban Population; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014505:Urban Population