Health Care Affordability and Complementary and Alternative Medicine Utilization by Adults with Diabetes

Abstract

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been growing rapidly in the U.S. in recent years. The proportion of adults reporting the use of at least one CAM therapy during the previous year increased from 33.8% in 1990 to 42.1% in 1997 (1). Data from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) revealed that close to two-thirds of U.S. adults had used at least one CAM therapy during the previous year (2). A recent study using 2002 NHIS data showed that about one-half of all adults with diabetes were CAM users (3). The main reasons for the rising popularity of CAM range from the actual/perceived inadequacies of conventional treatments to the desire for more autonomy in treatment decisions (3,4). Interestingly, CAM use is rising while at the same time conventional medicine has become less affordable (5). The purpose of this study is to analyze the relation between the affordability of conventional health care and the use of CAM by adults with diabetes. The 2002 NHIS is a nationally representative survey of the civilian noninstitutionalized U.S. population. The survey includes demographic, socioeconomic, health, and health care utilization information on a sample of 31,044 adults. The 2002 NHIS included a CAM supplement with detailed information on the use of 17 CAM therapies (6). Our final sample included 2,142 adults who had been told by …