Patients’ Perspectives on Discussing Complementary and Alternative Medicine Therapies
Currently, little is known about patients’ perceptions and beliefs in discussing
complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) with their conventional medical (CM)
doctor. The purpose of this descriptive research was to show whether CAM-using
patients have an interest in discussing CAM treatments with their CM doctor for
comprehensive care as described by the health belief model (HBM) constructs of
perceived susceptibility, perceived seriousness, and perceived benefits of taking action.
A sample of 165 participants age 18 or older from 2 chiropractic clinics in the
midwestern United States completed a Likert-scaled survey. The data were analyzed
using descriptive statistics and multiple regression to determine if there is a relationship
between the variables of the need for a CAM discussion with a CM as the outcome using
HBM constructs as the independent variables. The primary findings from this study were
that (a) the participants were interested in discussing CAM with their physicians, with the
majority of the participants stating that they discussed CAM either often (33.5%) or
always (29.3%); and (b) perceived susceptibility, perceived seriousness, and perceived
benefits of taking action were not predictive of a CAM discussion. Future studies should
be conducted to (a) examine samples with varying demographic characteristics to assess
the generalizability of the current findings; and (b) to include additional predictors of
CAM discussions from the HBM such as barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy. The
results of this study add to the limited literature on CAM usage and may prompt future
research. Implications for positive social change include understanding patient interest
in discussing CAM which can help improve the overall quality of patient service.