Table 4.
CAM modalities used by infertile women based on their perceived level of disease severity
| CAM modalities | Overall n = 167 (%) |
High perceived severity (4,5) # n = 110 (%) |
Low perceived severity (1,2,3) # n = 57(%) |
P-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Natural Product* | ||||
| Multivitamin (folic acid, iron supplement, etc.) | 141 (84.4) | 93 (84.5) | 48 (84.2) | 0.043a |
| Korean black raspberry (Rubus coreanus/Rubi Fructus) | 74 (44.3) | 54 (49.1) | 20 (35.1) | 0.008a |
| Ginseng and red ginseng | 63 (37.7) | 50 (45.5) | 13 (22.8) | < 0.001a |
| Mugwort | 36 (21.6) | 26 (23.6) | 10 (17.5) | 0.143a |
| Brown rice | 46 (27.5) | 30 (27.3) | 16 (28.1) | 0.509a |
| Blood circulation supplement pills | 15 (9.0) | 14 (12.7) | 1 (1.8) | 0.006b |
| Herbal tea | 9 (5.4) | 9 (8.2) | 0 (0.0) | 0.013b |
| Mind and body practices* | ||||
| Lower body bath/ hot spring bath | 53 (31.7) | 39 (35.5) | 14 (24.6) | 0.028a |
| Yoga | 45 (25.9) | 31 (28.2) | 14 (24.6) | 0.242a |
| Pray/meditation | 26 (15.6) | 18 (16.4) | 8 (14.0) | 0.400a |
| Psychotherapy | 6 (3.6) | 6 (5.5) | 0 (0.0) | 0.084b |
| Hypogastric breathing | 4 (2.4) | 1 (0.9) | 3 (5.3) | 0.305b |
| Chiropractic | 3 (1.8) | 3 (2.7) | 0 (0.0) | 0.278b |
| Massage | 15 (9.0) | 12 (10.9) | 3 (5.3) | 0.173b |
| Magnetic therapy | 3 (1.8) | 1 (0.9) | 2 (3.5) | 0.566b |
| Other complementary health approaches (Korean traditional medicine)* | ||||
| Herbal medicine | 121 (72.5) | 86 (78.2) | 35 (61.4) | 0.001a |
| Moxibustion | 32 (19.2) | 23 (20.9) | 9 (15.8) | 0.179a |
| Acupuncture | 23 (13.8) | 18 (16.4) | 5 (8.8) | 0.075b |
| Bee venom therapy | 8 (4.8) | 6 (5.5) | 2 (3.5) | 0.483b |
* Columns do not add up to 100% due to use of multiple treatments
# Perceived severity of disease was self-rated by participants on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all, 5 = Very much). Those who rated their severity from 1 to 3 were categorized as ‘low perceived severity’ group, whereas those who scored from 4 to 5 were put in ‘high perceived severity’ group
a Denotes Pearson’s Chi-square tests
b Denotes Fisher’s exact test