© 2006 American Public Health Association DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2004.047688
Fredi Kronenberg, Christine M. Wade, and Maria T. Chao are with the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Center for Complementary Medicine, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY. Linda F. Cushman and Debra Kalmuss are with the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York. Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Fredi Kronenberg, Rosenthal Center, Box 75, P & S, Columbia University, 630 West 168th St, New York, NY, 10032 (e-mail: fk11{at}columbia.edu).
Objectives. We studied the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among women in 4 racial/ethnic groups: non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Chinese Americans. Methods. We obtained a nationally representative sample of women aged 18 years and older living in the United States in 2001. Oversampling obtained 800 interviews in each group, resulting in a sample of 3068 women. Results. Between one third and one half of the members of all groups reported using at least 1 CAM modality in the year preceding the survey. In bivariate analyses, overall CAM use among Whites surpassed that of other groups; however, when CAM use was adjusted for socioeconomic factors, use by Whites and Mexican Americans were equivalent. Despite the socioeconomic disadvantage of African American women, socioeconomic factors did not account for differences in CAM use between Whites and African Americans. Conclusions. CAM use among racial/ethnic groups is complex and nuanced. Patterns of CAM use domains differ among groups, and multivariate models of CAM use indicate that ethnicity plays an independent role in the use of CAM modalities, the use of CAM practitioners, and the health problems for which CAM is used.
Since the early 1990s, Americans use of treatments outside the realm of conventional medicine has been well documented by national surveys and explored in various contexts and from several perspectives.15 Persistent gaps in our knowledge need to be addressed, however, particularly with regard to the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among women of color. Previous studies have indicated greater use of CAM among Whites and women but were limited in their capacity to assess racial/ethnic differences in CAM use.2,4,6 A notable exception is an analysis of the 1999 National Health Interview Survey, which included sufficient non-Whites to differentiate rates of CAM use among minorities.6 This study used broad racial categories and categorized CAM modalities into 5 large groupings, obscuring important differences in specific CAM use between racial/ethnic subgroups.6 A CAM supplement to the National Health Interview Survey included more-specific CAM categories and a sample of 31044 women, which enabled a more detailed analysis across Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, and Asians.7 Other studies have examined racial/ethnic differences in womens CAM use but have focused on specific disease conditions8 or life cycle stages,9 or were regional10,11 and limited in generalizability. Women are the primary consumers of health care services in the United States, both conventional12,13 and CAM.2,3 Therefore, more detailed information about womens use of CAM is needed. As the US population becomes more diverse, understanding racial/ethnic patterns of CAM use will enable assessments of the appropriateness of policies and programs and will inform and sensitize health care providers to the beliefs and practices of their patients. Additionally, if CAM use is found to be a resource with positive health effects, then access to CAM services should not be limited by race or ethnicity. Our study extended prior work by examining patterns of CAM use among women in 4 racial/ethnic groups: non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Chinese Americans. On the basis of national data, we assessed differences in the use of CAM overall, of CAM practitioners, of specific CAM domains, and the most common health conditions for which CAM was used.
Study Design A cross-sectional telephone survey of women aged 18 years and older living in the United States provided nationally representative data on womens use of CAM within the year before the summer of 2001, as well as on women in 3 minority groups. We examined women who self-identified as non-Hispanic White, African American, Mexican American, and Chinese American. The latter 2 groups were targeted because they are the largest Latino and Asian populations living in the United States. Interviews were conducted in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Cantonese.
Sample African American and Mexican American samples were generated with the common procedure of geotargeting,1416 which entailed oversampling from census tracts with at least 40% incidence of these groups. In the United States, 66% of African Americans and 73% of Mexican Americans live in such neighborhoods. Our sample was therefore representative of the majority, but not the full population, of these groups in the United States. Low incidence and minimal geographic clustering of the Chinese population in the United States necessitated generating a sample from a commercial database of Chinese surnames, representing 75% of the US Census estimate of Chinese households. The unweighted subsamples consisted of 812 African American, 811 Mexican American, and 804 Chinese American women as well as 641 non-Hispanic White women from the random-digit-dialed sample. The refusal rates for the subsamples were 21% (random-digit dialing), 26% (African American), 31% (Mexican American), and 27% (Chinese American). One woman per household was interviewed; if there was more than 1 eligible respondent in a household, the woman with the most recent birthday was interviewed. Data were weighted to correct for the probability of selection in households with more than 1 eligible woman.
Instrument Development
Interviewer Training and Interviewing
Measures Pretesting for the Chinese American sub-sample indicated that "energy therapies," "remedies associated with a particular culture," and "homeopathic remedies" were not meaningful to Chinese American respondents. With input from health care providers who worked with Chinese populations and were native speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese, we substituted categories known to be used by this group: prescription traditional Chinese medicines (Chinese medicinal decoctions or broths) and nonprescription traditional Chinese herbs/medicines (prepackaged or proprietary herbal formulas sold in Chinese drugstores). Of the 10 CAM domains included in the Chinese questionnaire, 8 were comparable to those asked in all versions of the instrument and 2 were unique to the Chinese version. Additional measures of CAM use in the past year included specific CAM domains compared across the racial/ethnic samples and whether women had seen a CAM practitioner during the past year, including visits to a massage therapist, acupuncturist, chiropractor, energy therapist, naturopath, herbalist, or homeopath. The final measure of CAM use was specific to health conditions identified by Latina and African American women in focus groups.17 Women were asked whether in the past year they had experienced a variety of gender-specific health conditions (urinary tract/vaginal infections, uterine fibroids, pregnancy-related conditions, menstrual symptoms, menopausal symptoms) and nongender-specific health conditions (back pain, joint pain/arthritis, headaches, insomnia, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, depression [medically diagnosed], osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer). For each condition experienced, CAM users were asked whether they had used CAM to treat the condition. Independent measures. The primary independent variable was race/ethnicity. On the basis of self-reported data, we created 4 dichotomous variables (non-Hispanic White, African American, Mexican American, Chinese American) that served as referent groups for analyses involving multiple comparisons. Other variables included age, educational attainment (less than high school, high school, more than high school), current employment status, any public assistance in the past 5 years, household income, birthplace, any health insurance, self-assessed health status (poor, fair, good, excellent), and whether the respondent had seen a doctor in the past year.
Analysis
Sample Description Sociodemographic and health status factors are presented in Table 1
Except for Mexican American women, the modal perceived health status was "good," chosen by approximately half the women of other race/ethnicities (Table 1
CAM Use Across Racial/Ethnic Groups
Non-Hispanic White women were also most likely to have used CAM and visited a medical doctor (37%), whereas Mexican American and Chinese American women were most likely to have used neither form of care (43% and 31%, respectively) (Table 2 When we adjusted for sociodemographic and health factors, overall CAM use was not consistently higher among non-Hispanic Whites than among women of minority groups. African American and Chinese American women (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.61 and 0.72, respectively) were significantly less likely to use CAM in the past year than non-Hispanic White women. Mexican American women and non-Hispanic White women, however, did not significantly differ in their CAM use in the past year when we accounted for covariates. The 3 minority groups of women did not differ in overall CAM use after adjustment for covariates.
Patterns of CAM Use Among CAM Users
CAM use was common for back pain among all groups of users except Mexican Americans, for whom osteoporosis and cancer were the top health conditions for which CAM was used (Table 3
Multivariable Analysis of Racial/Ethnic Differences Among CAM Users
Racial/ethnic differences in the use of CAM domains are presented in Table 4 When we accounted for covariates, African American and non-Hispanic White CAM users employed similar treatments, including vitamins/nutritional supplements, special diets, medicinal herbs/teas, manual therapies, and acupuncture. African American and Mexican American women did not significantly differ in their use of any CAM domains after adjustment for covariates. Chinese American CAM users were more likely to use acupuncture in the past year than African American or non-Hispanic White women. They were significantly less likely than any other group to use vitamins or nutritional supplements.
Rates of CAM use documented in this study, and the use of CAM as a complement rather than a substitute for conventional care, are consistent with the findings of nationally representative data.2,3,6 Our results, however, suggest that CAM use among racial/ethnic groups is more complex and nuanced than previously reported. For example, socioeconomic differentials account for the lower rate of CAM use among Mexican American women, but not among African American women, when compared with non-Hispanic White women. Moreover, despite similar socioeconomic profiles, non-Hispanic White and Chinese women used different CAM modalities for different reasons. Although we measured the use of religion/spirituality for health reasons and reported its use overall as in other studies,2,7 we excluded it from our CAM measure. If religion/spirituality were included, overall CAM use would be substantially higher. Religion/spirituality was used by the greatest percentage of women in all groups except Chinese American women, who reported little such use. Many Americans find comfort in prayer, religion, or spiritual practices; however, these do not categorize well as medicine or treatment. When spirituality/religion is designated CAM, its prevalence inflates.7,19 We noted religion and spirituality as a factor related to health behaviors and chose to analyze it separately in a substudy of African American women, who reported engaging in religious and spiritual practices more than any of the other groups.20 Culturally mediated influences affect the health care choices of women and may have more impact on 1 group than on another.21 Non-Hispanic White women used the widest variety of CAM and had a greater likelihood of using CAM and conventional services. Non-Hispanic White women may have more social resources than minority women, giving them greater access to many types of therapies,22 including those associated with less mainstream cultures. Healing traditions from Mexico and China are more likely to influence the health care choices of Mexican Americans and Chinese Americans because of more recent immigration.11,23 Botanical medicine is important in the health care of indigenous cultures in Mexico and the Southwestern United States,2227 and Chinese herbal medicine is codified in an extensive literature. Our sample of Chinese American and Mexican American women was predominantly foreign born, and as expected, we found a robust use of practices associated with these traditions.
Study Limitations Although the use of rigorous sampling techniques and standardized instruments permit the generalization of survey findings to a larger population, they do not support in-depth analysis of culturally mediated issues. Standardized questions cannot, by definition, address nuances of meaning across cultures. A Chinese pretest revealed that 3 CAM domains did not have meaning as worded for Chinese women; moreover, we were not adequately capturing their use of traditional Chinese medicine. Substituting questions yielded more culturally grounded data for the Chinese American sample but compromised the standardization of the instrument, thus limiting comparisons among groups. This study was not designed to explore cross-cultural issues but to provide background information for further analyses. We are continuing this work with subgroup analyses20,28 and a qualitative study of Chinese Americans and African Americans. Because of inclusion of 4 racial/ethnic groups, the number of statistical comparisons in each analysis is quite large, which may have produced higher rates of type 1 error. Although these were exploratory analyses, they were "unprotected" tests and should be interpreted in that light.
Public Health Implications Womens frequent use of CAM raises important issues at the practical and clinical level of public health, as well as informing theory. For example, standard models of health behavior have historically been oriented to conventional medicine, and studies would benefit from the incorporation of behaviors and beliefs associated with CAM use. On the clinical level, outcomes research and cost/effectiveness assessments that account for CAM use are also critical. Will adequate funding be available to rigorously study the safety and efficacy of the myriad CAM treatments already being used? What rationale will determine treatments selected for experimental examination? What is the appropriate evidence threshold for incorporating specific treatments, whether CAM or conventional, into clinical practice and insurance coverage? Will a full range of evidence-based treatment options be available to all women regardless of race, ethnicity, migration status, or ability to pay? Our study contributes to the small but growing literature on CAM in diverse populations and to our knowledge of racial/ethnic differences in CAM use. As the ethnic diversity in the United States continues to increase, data such as these will be indispensable in providing comprehensive, quality care to the myriad of cultural groups in the country.
This work was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant R01 HD 37073) and included support from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Pilot studies were developed with funding from the National Institutes of Health/Office of Alternative Medicine (grant U24 HD3319-93) with support from the Office of Research on Womens Health. Thanks to Whitney Dessio; Kenny Kwong and Brenda Wan of the Chinatown Health Clinic in New York City; Elissa Krauss, Ed Cohen, and Stuart Lahn of Audits and Surveys Worldwide; Marian Reiff, Christine Aguilar, Marnae Ergil, and Li Zhou; and to the more than 3000 women who took time from their busy days to answer our questions about their health care practices.
Human Participant Protection
Peer Reviewed
Contributors Accepted for publication August 14, 2005.
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