Abstract
BackgroundObese and overweight individuals have greater illness and disease burden, but previous findings from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) suggest that they are no more likely to use complementary health approaches (CHA) than those of normal weight. The current study investigates the relationship between weight status and CHA use, and among CHA users, examines differences in reasons for use by weight status. We propose and test a Dual Continuum Model of Motivations for Use of CHA to examine differences in reasons for use by weight status.MethodParticipants were drawn from the 2012 NHIS, a nationally representative sample of civilian, non-institutionalized US adults (N = 34,525). Weight status was operationalized by body mass index. CHA use was measured in the past year and was categorized into alternative providers, products, and practices. Among CHA users (N = 9307) factors associated with use were categorized as health enhancing or health reactive.ResultsLogistic regression showed overweight and obese individuals were less likely to use alternative providers, products, and practices than normal weight. Multinomial logit regression showed some support that overweight and obese adults were less likely than normal weight persons to use CHA for health-enhancing reasons, and more likely to use for health reactive reasons.ConclusionsDespite greater health burden, overweight and obese adults are underutilizing CHA, including modalities that can be helpful for health management. The Dual Continuum Model of CHA Motivations shows promise for explicating the diversity of reasons for CHA use among adults at risk for health problems.
Highlights
Obese and overweight individuals have greater illness and disease burden, but previous findings from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) suggest that they are no more likely to use complementary health approaches (CHA) than those of normal weight
Despite greater health burden, overweight and obese adults are underutilizing CHA, including modalities that can be helpful for health management
Obesity is associated with increased risk for type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers [2,3,4], with direct medical costs accounting for 5–10% of annual health care spending [5, 6]
Summary
Obese and overweight individuals have greater illness and disease burden, but previous findings from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) suggest that they are no more likely to use complementary health approaches (CHA) than those of normal weight. We propose and test a Dual Continuum Model of Motivations for Use of CHA to examine differences in reasons for use by weight status. We propose that CHA for treatment reflects reactive motives, whereas CHA for health promotion reflects health-enhancement motives, and that such motives can be further differentiated according to whether CHA use is directed towards immediate or distal health concerns. We introduce this Dual Continuum Model of Motivations for CHA use to provide a fine-grained, theoretical understanding of the diversity of motivations for using CHA among of normal weight, overweight, and obese individuals
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