Investigating Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use in a Spanish-Speaking Hispanic Community in South Carolina

Article Figures & Data

Table 1.

Demographic Characteristics of Respondents and Use of CAM

Characteristic	No. (%) of Respondents (N = 70)	Percentage Using CAM	P Value*
CAM = complementary and alternative medicine.
Note: Percentages may not total to 100% because of rounding.
* Differences between percentages were tested with the χ² test.
Sex
Female	48 (69)	67	.46
Male	17 (24)	76
No response	5 (7)	–
Age
<50 years	53 (76)	71	.49
≥50 years	11 (16)	73
No response	6 (9)	–
Education
Below high school	43 (61)	67	.76
High school or above	19 (27)	74
No response	8 (11)	–
Annual family income
<$40,000	41 (59)	71	.48
≥$40,000	7 (10)	85
No response	22 (31)	–
Payment method
Insurance/Medicaid	32 (46)	75	.23
Self-pay	34 (49)	65
No response	4 (6)	–

Table 2.

Reasons for CAM Use

Reason	No. (%) of CAM Users (n = 48)
CAM = complementary and alternative medicine.
Note: Users could indicate more than 1 reason.
Prefer to deal with the problem myself	3 (6)
Failure of regular treatment to cure my problem	3 (6)
To avoid side effects of regular medical treatment	5 (10)
Unhappy with advice of physicians	10 (21)
Failure of physicians to correctly diagnose my problem	14 (29)
There is no medical treatment for my problem	14 (29)
I have serious illness with poor chance of recovery	3 (6)
This is the way I was taught to treat my problem by my family	16 (33)
A friend or coworker recommended this treatment to me	4 (8)
I heard about this treatment in the news	5 (10)
It costs less than traditional medications	5 (10)
Other	2 (4)