Abstract 2522: Complementary and alternative medicine use among cancer survivors in the United States.

Abstract

Abstract Background: Although there is little evidence of effectiveness of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), there has been an increase in the number of patients turning to these largely unproven medical therapies. In this study, we sought to determine if those with a personal history of cancer were more likely to have utilized CAM as compared to those without a history of cancer. Methods: We analyzed the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) and identified 976 respondents who were cancer survivors and 6,235 respondents without a personal history of cancer. We compared the demographic, lifestyle, and healthcare perceptions of these participants and used logistic regression models to evaluate the association of personal history of cancer, cancer treatment and the time since cancer treatment with CAM use. We used survey weights in all analysis and Taylor series linearization to perform variance estimations to account for the complex survey design. Results: Overall, cancer survivors were as likely as those without history of cancer to use CAM in the previous 12 months (27.1% vs. 25.2%; OR = 1.09; 95%CI: 0.86-1.38). Cancer treatment and time since cancer treatment was not associated with CAM use (Table 1). Conclusions: Cancer survivors were as likely as adults without a history of cancer to use complementary and alternative medicine irrespective of cancer treatment. Table 1. The effect of cancer treatment and time since treatment on CAM use among cancer survivors By cancer treatment Cancer survivor characteristics Weighted% with CAM use CAM use versus no CAM use OR (95% CI) No history of cancer (n = 6,235) 25.2% Reference No cancer treatment (n = 117) 32.6% 1.69 (0.82–3.47) Had cancer treatment (n = 847) 26.3% 1.01 (0.78–1.29) By time since cancer treatment No history of cancer (n = 6,235) Reference Still undergoing cancer treatment (n = 94) 29.4% 1.15 (0.50–2.63) Completed cancer treatment less than 1 year ago (n = 143) 22.6% 0.96 (0.55–1.66) Completed cancer treatment 1 or more years ago (n = 537) 26.5% 1.00 (0.72–1.41) Adjusted for respondent's age, sex, marital status, place of birth, race, income, education level, health insurance status, BMI, perception of health status, perception of health care quality received, and confidence in taking care of one's own health Citation Format: Maryam Laiyemo, Gail Nunlee-Bland, Frederick Lombardo, R. George Adams, Adeyinka Laiyemo. Complementary and alternative medicine use among cancer survivors in the United States. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2522. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2522