Background: Although a quarter of Americans are estimated to have multiple chronic conditions, information on the impact of chronic disease dyads and triads on use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is scarce. The purpose of this study is to: 1) estimate the prevalence and odds of CAM use among participants with hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity; and 2) examine the effects of chronic condition dyads and triads on the use of CAM modalities, specifically manipulative and body-based methods, biological treatments, mindbody interventions, energy therapies, and alternative medical systems.
Methods: Data were obtained from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey and the Adult Alternative Medicine supplement. Statistical analyses were restricted to persons with self-reported hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes, or obesity (n = 15,463).
Results: Approximately 37.2% of the participants had just one of the four chronic conditions, while 62.4% self-reported multiple comorbidities. CAM use among participants was as follows (p<0.001): hypercholesterolemia (31.5%), hypertension (28.3%), diabetes (25.0%), and obesity (10.8%). All combinations of disease dyads and triads were consistently and significantly associated with the use of mind-body interventions (2–4%, p < 0.001). Two sets of three dyads were associated with use of manipulative methods (23–27%, p < 0.05) and energy therapies (0.2–0.3%, p<0.05). Use of biological treatments (0.04%, p<0.05) and alternative systems (3%, p < 0.05) were each significant for one dyad. One triad was significant for use of manipulative methods (27%, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: These findings point to future directions for research and have practical implications for family practitioners treating multimorbid patients.
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Title
Complementary and alternative medicine use among persons with multiple chronic conditions
Publication Details
BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Vol.18
Resource Type
Journal article
Publisher
BioMed Central Ltd.; London
Series
18
Format
pdf
Copyright
The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Identifiers
WOS:000447743800001; 99380090307906600
Academic Unit
Usha Kundu, MD College of Health; Public Health
Language
English
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Complementary and alternative medicine use among persons