Use of complementary and alternative medicine for treatment among African-Americans: a multivariate analysis.
BACKGROUND
The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is substantial among African-Americans; however, research on characteristics of African-Americans who use CAM to treat specific conditions is scarce.


OBJECTIVE
To determine what predisposing, enabling, need, and disease-state factors are related to CAM use for treatment among a nationally representative sample of African-Americans.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study design was employed using the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). A nationwide representative sample of adult (> or =18 years) African-Americans who used CAM in the past 12 months (n=16,113,651 weighted; n=2,952 unweighted) was included. The Andersen Health Care Utilization Model served as the framework with CAM use for treatment as the main outcome measure. Independent variables included the following: predisposing (eg, age, gender, and education); enabling (eg, income, employment, and access to care); need (eg, health status, physician visits, and prescription medication use); and disease state (ie, most prevalent conditions among African-Americans) factors. Multivariate logistic regression was used to address the study objective.


RESULTS
Approximately 1 in 5 (20.2%) who used CAM in the past 12 months used CAM to treat a specific condition. Ten of the 15 CAM modalities were used primarily for treatment by African-Americans. CAM for treatment was significantly (P<.05) associated with the following factors: graduate education, smaller family size, higher income, region (northeast, midwest, west more likely than south), depression/anxiety, more physician visits, less likely to engage in preventive care, more frequent exercise behavior, more activities of daily living (ADL) limitations, and neck pain.


CONCLUSIONS
Twenty percent of African-Americans who used CAM in the past year were treating a specific condition. Alternative medical systems, manipulative and body-based therapies, and folk medicine, prayer, biofeedback, and energy/Reiki were used most often. Health care professionals should routinely ask patients about the use of CAM, but when encountering African-Americans, there may be a number of factors that may serve as cues for further inquiry.
Barner
Jamie C
JC
Pharmacy Administration Division, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-0124, USA. jbarner@mail.utexas.edu
Bohman
Thomas M
TM
Brown
Carolyn M
CM
Richards
Kristin M
KM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
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