Abstract
Background: Previous studies have shown that cancer patients are more likely to use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) than non-cancer patients for immune enhancement and symptom relief. We hypothesized that cancer patients with immigration background may seek out CAM use more readily than the US born patients due to the impact from their cultural background.Methods: This is a prospective, single institution, questionnaire study on cancer patient for the use of CAM. Correlates of CAM use with age, sex, cancer types, stages, race, birthplace, immigration duration, first language use, marital status, levels of poverty, education and anxiety, were studied.Results: Among 658 patients, the prevalence of CAM use was 66.11%. CAM use was 71.98% in females and 54.34% in males (p=1.13x10-5), 67.09% in patients ≥ 38 years old and 46.88% in patients < 38 years old (p=0.0215). Patients of African descent had higher CAM use (72.73%) than the Caucasians and Others (63.53%) (p=0.0371). There was no difference of CAM use between the US born (68.77%) and the immigrants (63.98%) as a whole; however, Asian born immigrants had lower CAM use (53.77%) than the US born (66.50%) (p=0.0161), while the Latin-American born had a trend towards higher CAM use (74.83%, P=0.0608). The number of years living in the US by the immigrants did not have an association with CAM use. Among psychosocial economic factors, married patients had a lower CAM use (61.23%) than the unmarried (70.85%) (p=0.0102). The levels of education, poverty and anxiety did not show a statistical difference in relation to CAM use, nor was the difference between the early or late stages of disease. Prayer and spirituality, and Dietary medicine were the two most common CAM subtypes used (25.91% and 16.12%, respectively). African Americans showed the highest rate of using Prayer and spirituality (84.72%) while the Asian Americans had the lowest rate (40.32%). Conclusions: Among cancer patients of multi-ethnic and immigration background, CAM use was higher in African American patients, and lower in Asian Americans, as compared to the US born, or to Caucasians. Cultural roots appeared to be a strong influencing factor for the selection of CAM.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) use in Cancer Patients of Immigration Background