Reasons to Use and Disclose Use of Complementary Medicine Use - An Insight from Cancer Patients.

Chien-Shing Chen,Juan Carlos Belliard,Susanne Montgomery,Kristen N Arthur,Kathryn Knecht,Steven B. Hardin

doi:10.5539/cco.v2n2p81

Abstract

Studies have shown a high prevalence (40–83%) of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use among cancer patients in the U.S.A cross-sectional, mixed-methods pilot study was completed. This paper focuses on the quantitative analysis conducted on demographic predictors of complementary medicine (CM) use, reasons to use CM, and disclosure to healthcare provider data. Surveys were interview-administered at the Loma Linda University Medical Center Cancer Center. Participants, 18 years or older, were selected from a convenient sample. Eighty-seven percent (87.9%) of participants reported to have used CM as a cancer treatment and most reported to have used it “to help fight the cancer.” Women were eight-times more likely to use prayer. All non-Caucasian and Hispanic participants reported to use CM as a cancer therapy and none reported to use a CM provider. More women (72%) disclosed their CM use than men (53.3%). Different prevalences and predictors exist when differentiating CM modalities, reasons to use CM vary by gender, and disclosure proportions vary by gender.

Highlights

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is generally defined as a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine (NCCAM, 2010; Harris & Rees, 2000)
The prevalences found for use of different complementary medicine (CM) modalities were wide-ranging (10% to 95%), an 88% prevalence for any type of CM use as a cancer therapy was higher than other estimates, which typically range from 40% to 83% (Boon et al, 2000; Buettner et al, 2006; Cassileth et al, 1984; DiGianni et al, 2002; Ernst & Cassileth, 1998; Ganz et al, 2002; Greenlee et al, 2009; Habermann et al, 2009; Henderson & Donatelle, 2004; Lawsin et al, 2007; Lee et al, 2000; Lo et al, 2009; Mao et al, 2007; Mao, 2011; Morris et al, 2000; Richardson et al, 2000; Saxe et al, 2008; Yap, 2004)
Our main findings are (1) differentiating CM modalities shows that different prevalences exist for each modality, (2) differentiating CM modalities shows that different predictors of CM use exist for each modality, (3) reasons to use CM vary by gender, and (4) disclosure proportions vary by gender

Summary

Introduction

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is generally defined as a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine (NCCAM, 2010; Harris & Rees, 2000). Studies have reported that use of CM among patients with a serious illness, such as cancer, is higher than that of the general population and ranges from 40% to 83% While studies of the use of CM among cancer patients have been increasing, the motivation to use CM, both clinical (Gansler, Kaw, Crammer, & Smith, 2008; Velicer & Ulrich, 2008) and psychosocial (Arthur, 2012; Singh, 2005), are not fully www.ccsenet.org/cco

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