TABLE 3—
Patterns of CAM Use Among CAM Users, by Racial/Ethnic Group
| Non-Hispanic White, % (n = 389) | African American, % (n = 406) | Mexican American, % (n = 383) | Chinese American, % (n = 417) | |
| Saw CAM practitioner in past year* | 51.4 | 41.5 | 44.9 | 58.8 |
| Commonly used CAM domains (for an illness or condition, or just to stay healthy) | ||||
| Vitamins* | 52.4 | 43.8 | 27.0 | 10.1 |
| Medicinal herbs* | 32.5 | 37.4 | 50.9 | 30.1 |
| Nonprescription Chinese medicine | . . . | . . . | . . . | 44.4 |
| Chiropractic care* | 31.6 | 15.8 | 18.3 | 17.1 |
| Manual therapy | 25.4 | 19.2 | 22.7 | 21.6 |
| Mind/body practices (yoga, meditation, tai chi, chi gong)* | 25.7 | 13.3 | 7.8 | 13.9 |
| CAM use for health conditionsa | ||||
| Joint pain or arthritis* | 55.9 | 42.9 | 25.0 | 17.5 |
| Back pain* | 53.8 | 43.3 | 27.0 | 29.2 |
| Osteoporosis* | 50.0 | 71.4 | 85.7 | 7.0 |
| Headaches* | 51.7 | 30.2 | 25.4 | 13.1 |
| Cancer | 38.5 | 16.7 | 57.1 | 0.0 |
| Heart disease | 46.2 | 7.7 | 40.0 | 8.3 |
| Depression | 32.2 | 28.0 | 30.8 | 36.4 |
| High blood pressure | 30.1 | 27.6 | 17.2 | 21.2 |
| Insomnia* | 34.6 | 24.2 | 23.4 | 9.3 |
| High cholesterol | 23.5 | 16.0 | 20.0 | 17.5 |
| Weight loss | 17.9 | 32.4 | 27.3 | 16.7 |
| Urinary tract/vaginal infections | 20.3 | 9.5 | 17.9 | 14.5 |
| Uterine fibroids | 10.5 | 5.3 | . . . | . . . |
Note. CAM = complementary and alternative medicine. The subsamples were weighted to account for selection probability in households with more than 1 woman.
aAmong women who reported having each of the health conditions. Conditions for which CAM was most commonly used (top 3) are in boldface type.
* P < .001 for between-group differences, based on χ2 tests.