title: Older adults' use of care strategies in response to general and upper respiratory symptoms.
abstract: This study examined the use of complementary and medical treatments, both individually and in combination, to address common general and upper respiratory symptoms. Data for the analysis were collected from a series of 18 daily diary questionnaires administered to community-living older African American and white adults living in rural counties in North Carolina. Participants reported symptoms experienced on each diary day and the treatment strategies they used each day in response to the particular symptom(s). Older adults used diverse categories of strategies to treat symptoms; treatment strategies were used inconsistently across symptoms. Use of only complementary strategies, only medical conventional strategies, or both complementary and medical strategies to treat any one symptom rarely corresponded to the use of the same strategy to address other symptoms. Future research would benefit from analyzing how older adults use health care strategies across symptom categories.
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA jsandber@wakehealth.edu.
authors.forename: Joanne C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Sandberg
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Grzywacz
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Cynthia K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Suerken
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Altizer
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Sara A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Quandt
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Ha T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Ronny A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Arcury
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005221:Fatigue / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009657:North Carolina; D010612:Pharyngitis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: aging; complementary medicine; older adults; rural; self-care