Table 2.
Patient characteristics based on types of CAM use
| Biologically-based systems (n = 91) | Manipulative and body-based methods (n = 44) | Mind-body interventions (n = 11) | More than 1 type of CAM used (n = 146) | P-valuea | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demographics | |||||
| Age | 57.3 (9.7) | 57.6 (11.8) | 57.2 (11.0) | 56.6 (11.0) | 0.867 |
| Gender | 0.262 | ||||
| Male | 68 (74.7 %) | 36 (81.8 %) | 7 (63.6 %) | 98 (67.1 %) | |
| Female | 23 (25.3 %) | 8 (18.2 %) | 4 (36.4 %) | 48 (32.9 %) | |
| Ethnicity | 0.026 | ||||
| Chinese | 72 (79.1 %) | 35 (79.5 %) | 6 (54.5 %) | 118 (80.8 %) | |
| Malay | 3 (3.3 %) | 2 (4.5 %) | 0 (0.0 %) | 4 (2.7 %) | |
| Indian | 8 (8.8 %) | 2 (4.5 %) | 4 (36.4 %) | 20 (13.7 %) | |
| Others | 8 (8.8 %) | 5 (11.4 %) | 1 (9.1 %) | 4 (2.7 %) | |
| Education | 0.136 | ||||
| ≤ Secondary/ITE | 38 (42.7 %) | 15 (34.1 %) | 0 (0.0 %) | 39 (27.1 %) | |
| Polytechnic diploma/A Level | 24 (27.0 %) | 15 (34.1 %) | 4 (40.0 %) | 51 (35.4 %) | |
| Degree/Post-graduate | 27 (30.3 %) | 14 (31.8 %) | 6 (60.0 %) | 54 (37.5 %) | |
| Occupation | 0.751 | ||||
| White collar | 37 (54.4 %) | 16 (47.1 %) | 4 (80.0 %) | 62 (55.4 %) | |
| Blue collar | 11 (16.2 %) | 8 (23.5 %) | 0 (0.0 %) | 14 (12.5 %) | |
| Unemployed/homemaker | 20 (29.4 %) | 10 (29.4 %) | 1 (20.0 %) | 36 (32.1 %) | |
| Housing | 0.880 | ||||
| ≤ 3 room public apartment | 8 (9.6 %) | 4 (10.0 %) | 0 (0.0 %) | 17 (12.7 %) | |
| 4–5 room public apartment | 40 (48.2 %) | 22 (55.0 %) | 4 (40.0 %) | 63 (47.0 %) | |
| Private property | 35 (42.2 %) | 14 (35.0 %) | 6 (60.0 %) | 54 (40.3 %) | |
| Smoking | 0.647 | ||||
| No | 57 (67.1 %) | 27 (64.3 %) | 8 (72.7 %) | 99 (72.3 %) | |
| Ever smoker | 28 (32.9 %) | 15 (35.7 %) | 3 (27.3 %) | 38 (27.7 %) | |
| Alcohol | 0.709 | ||||
| No | 35 (41.7 %) | 15 (38.5 %) | 6 (54.5 %) | 68 (47.9 %) | |
| Ever drinker | 49 (58.3 %) | 24 (61.5 %) | 5 (45.5 %) | 74 (52.1 %) | |
| Clinical Characteristics | |||||
| BMI | 25.5 (5.6) | 26.3 (5.1) | 24.3 (2.3) | 25.8 (5.3) | 0.906 |
| Systolic Blood Pressure | 130.4 (20.1) | 134.0 (17.0) | 122.1 (17.1) | 132.3 (17.6) | 0.484 |
| Diastolic Blood Pressure | 69.8 (9.5) | 73.7 (11.3) | 69.1 (10.2) | 71.2 (9.9) | 0.606 |
| Diabetes mellitus | 30 (33.0 %) | 9 (20.5 %) | 1 (9.1 %) | 27 (18.5 %) | 0.068 |
| Hypertension | 39 (42.9 %) | 27 (61.4 %) | 2 (18.2 %) | 77 (52.7 %) | 0.057 |
| Hyperlipidemia | 55 (60.4 %) | 28 (63.6 %) | 6 (54.5 %) | 99 (67.8 %) | 0.749 |
| HbA1C (%)b | 6.7 (2.0) | 6.1 (0.8) | 5.6 (0.2) | 6.2 (1.3) | 0.279 |
| LDL Cholesterol (mmol/L)c | 2.7 (1.0) | 2.6 (1.0) | 2.4 (0.6) | 2.7 (0.9) | 0.950 |
Energy therapies not included in analysis as only one patient used energy therapy only
Mean and SD are reported for continuous data and frequency and percentages for categorical data
aComparing one type of CAM use only (excluding energy therapies and others) and more than one type of CAM use
bHbA1C – 473 patients with missing data
cLDL – 303 patients with missing data