Health Behavior Change and Complementary Medicine Use: National Health Interview Survey 2012

Felicity L Bishop; Romy Lauche; Holger Cramer; Jonquil W Pinto; Brenda Leung; Helen Hall; Matthew Leach; Vincent Ch Chung; Tobias Sundberg; Yan Zhang; Amie Steel; Lesley Ward; David Sibbritt; Jon Adams

doi:10.3390/medicina55100632

Health Behavior Change and Complementary Medicine Use: National Health Interview Survey 2012

Medicina (Kaunas). 2019 Sep 24;55(10):632. doi: 10.3390/medicina55100632.

Authors

Felicity L Bishop^{1

2}, Romy Lauche^{3

4}, Holger Cramer^{5

6}, Jonquil W Pinto⁷, Brenda Leung^{8

9}, Helen Hall^{10

11}, Matthew Leach^{12

13}, Vincent Ch Chung^{14

15}, Tobias Sundberg^{16

17}, Yan Zhang^{18

19}, Amie Steel²⁰, Lesley Ward^{21

22}, David Sibbritt²³, Jon Adams²⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. f.l.bishop@southampton.ac.uk.
² Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. f.l.bishop@southampton.ac.uk.
³ Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. Romy.Lauche@uts.edu.au.
⁴ Sozialstiftung Bamberg, 96049 Bamberg, Germany. Romy.Lauche@uts.edu.au.
⁵ Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. h.cramer@kem-med.com.
⁶ Department of Internal and Integrative Medicine, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45276 Essen, Germany. h.cramer@kem-med.com.
⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. J.W.Pinto@soton.ac.uk.
⁸ Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. brenda.leung@uleth.ca.
⁹ Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Alberta T1K 3M4, Canada. brenda.leung@uleth.ca.
¹⁰ Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. helen.hall@monash.edu.
¹¹ Faculty of Medicine, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia. helen.hall@monash.edu.
¹² Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. matthew.leach@unisa.edu.au.
¹³ Department of Rural Health, University of South Australia, Whyalla Norrie SA 5608, Australia. matthew.leach@unisa.edu.au.
¹⁴ Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. vchung@cuhk.edu.hk.
¹⁵ Jockey Club School of Public Health & Primary Care and School of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin 999077, Hong Kong. vchung@cuhk.edu.hk.
¹⁶ Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. tobias.sundberg@ki.se.
¹⁷ Musculoskeletal & Sports Injury Epidemiology Center (MUSIC), Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. tobias.sundberg@ki.se.
¹⁸ Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. YAN.ZHANG@tcu.edu.
¹⁹ Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas 76109, USA. YAN.ZHANG@tcu.edu.
²⁰ Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. Amie.Steel@uts.edu.au.
²¹ Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. lesley.ward@northumbria.ac.uk.
²² Department of Sport, Exercise & Rehabilitation, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 8ST, UK. lesley.ward@northumbria.ac.uk.
²³ Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. David.Sibbritt@uts.edu.au.
²⁴ Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), University of Technology Sydney, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. Jon.Adams@uts.edu.au.

Abstract

Background and objectives: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use has been associated with preventive health behaviors. However, the role of CAM use in patients' health behaviors remains unclear. This study aimed to determine the extent to which patients report that CAM use motivates them to make changes to their health behaviors. Materials and Methods: This secondary analysis of 2012 National Health Interview Survey data involved 10,201 CAM users living in the United States who identified up to three CAM therapies most important to their health. Analyses assessed the extent to which participants reported that their CAM use motivated positive health behavior changes, specifically: eating healthier, eating more organic foods, cutting back/stopping drinking alcohol, cutting back/quitting smoking cigarettes, and/or exercising more regularly. Results: Overall, 45.4% of CAM users reported being motivated by CAM to make positive health behavior changes, including exercising more regularly (34.9%), eating healthier (31.4%), eating more organic foods (17.2%), reducing/stopping smoking (16.6% of smokers), or reducing/stopping drinking alcohol (8.7% of drinkers). Individual CAM therapies motivated positive health behavior changes in 22% (massage) to 81% (special diets) of users. People were more likely to report being motivated to change health behaviors if they were: aged 18-64 compared to those aged over 65 years; of female gender; not in a relationship; of Hispanic or Black ethnicity, compared to White; reporting at least college education, compared to people with less than high school education; without health insurance. Conclusions: A sizeable proportion of respondents were motivated by their CAM use to undertake health behavior changes. CAM practices and practitioners could help improve patients' health behavior and have potentially significant implications for public health and preventive medicine initiatives; this warrants further research attention.

Keywords: complementary and alternative medicine; health attitudes; health behavior; lifestyle; motivations.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Complementary Therapies*
Female
Health Behavior*
Health Surveys
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Patient Acceptance of Health Care
United States
Young Adult