Assessing the effects of race and ethnicity on use of complementary and alternative therapies in the USA

Abstract

The use of alternative and complementary therapies varied across racial/ ethnic groups. Evidence showed that individuals who were dissatisfied with the availability of conventional healthcare, who were in poor health, but very satisfied with their conventional provider were more likely to use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies. The addition of these variables to a logistic regression model did not change the findings for differential use by ethnicity, the relative ranking of groups, or the overall strength of the relationship.