Do attitudes and beliefs regarding complementary and alternative medicine impact its use among patients with cancer? A cross‐sectional survey

BACKGROUND Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) incorporates treatments used by cancer survivors in an attempt to improve their quality of life. Although population studies have identified factors associated with its use, to the best of the authors knowledge, assessment of why patients use C...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cancer 2015-07, Vol.121 (14), p.2431-2438
Main Authors: Bauml, Joshua M., Chokshi, Sagar, Schapira, Marilyn M., Im, Eun‐Ok, Li, Susan Q., Langer, Corey J., Ibrahim, Said A., Mao, Jun J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Alternative medicine
Attitude of Health Personnel
Attitudes
attitudes and beliefs
Barriers
CAM
Cancer
clinical characteristics
complementary and alternative medicine
Complementary Therapies - utilization
Cross-Sectional Studies
Demographic variables
Demographics
Female
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Male
Medicine
Middle Aged
Neoplasms - therapy
Norms
Oncology
Patient-Centered Care - trends
Patients
Population studies
Quality of Life
Regression analysis
Self Report
Sex Factors
Surveys and Questionnaires
Survivors
Thorax
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Summary:BACKGROUND Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) incorporates treatments used by cancer survivors in an attempt to improve their quality of life. Although population studies have identified factors associated with its use, to the best of the authors knowledge, assessment of why patients use CAM or the barriers against its use have not been examined to date. METHODS The authors conducted a cross‐sectional survey study in the thoracic, breast, and gastrointestinal medical oncology clinics at an academic cancer center. Clinical and demographic variables were collected by self‐report and chart ion. Attitudes and beliefs were measured using the validated Attitudes and Beliefs about CAM (ABCAM) instrument. This instrument divides attitudes and beliefs into 3 domains: expected benefits, perceived barriers, and subjective norms. RESULTS Among 969 participants (response rate, 82.7%) surveyed between June 2010 and September 2011, patient age ≤65 years, female sex, and college education were associated with a significantly greater expected benefit from CAM (P
ISSN:0008-543X
1097-0142
DOI:10.1002/cncr.29173