Role of religiosity and spirituality in complementary and alternative medicine use among cancer survivors in California.

Objectives: Cancer survivors often turn to religion, spirituality, and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) because they perceive these areas as being more holistic and patient-centered than conventional medicine. Because increased religiosity and spirituality have been found to be associated with higher CAM use in the general population, it was hypothesized that these factors would be important predictors of CAM use in cancer survivors.

Design And Subjects: The study included a subsample of 1844 people with cancer or a history of cancer from the 2003 California Health Interview Survey of CAM, a cross-sectional survey of a population-based sample of adults in California.

Complementary and alternative medicine use among Asian-American subgroups: prevalence, predictors, and lack of relationship to acculturation and access to conventional health care.

Objectives: Acculturation and access to conventional health care have been found to be predictors of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in the general population. We hypothesized that these factors would be predictors of CAM use in Asian-American subgroups. Because of differences in health and cultural beliefs, we also hypothesized that patterns and predictors of CAM use would vary among Asian-American subgroups.