HEALTH SERVICE RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS
Please note: All posters will be displayed in
Salons 10-12.
FRIDAY, 5:45-6:30 PM
Wade C, Chao MT, Kronenberg F.
Medical pluralism of Chinese women living in the United
States.
Rosenthal Center of Complementary & Alternative
Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University wade@columbia.edu
OBJECTIVE: National prevalence data for use
of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) have not been reported
for Chinese immigrants to the United States. The use of Traditional
Chinese Medicine (TCM) along with Western conventional medicine is common
in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Peoples Republic of China. Little is known
about how the medical pluralism of the Chinese transfers to the United
States. This study provides national prevalence estimates for complementary
and alternative medicine use, visits to doctors for health problems,
and patterns of use by Chinese immigrant women for women's health conditions.
METHODS: A national telephone survey of the
use of complementary and alternative medicine for women's health conditions
was conducted with a sample of 3,172 women 18 and older in four racial/ethnic
groups in 2001. This study focuses on a subsample of 804 Chinese-American
women. Respondents were asked about their visits to Western physicians,
their use of a variety of complementary and alternative medicine, and
specifically about their use of TCM. Interviews were conducted in Mandarin,
Cantonese and English.
RESULTS: Forty-one percent of Chinese-American
women used some form of complementary and alternative medicine in 2001.
At least two-thirds of the complementary and alternative use were healthcare
practices associated with TCM. Ten percent of the sample used more mainstream
complementary and alternative practices (vitamins/nutritional supplements
and chiropractic.) Women who utilized more mainstream CAM practices
had significantly higher acculturation scores, when socio-demographic
variables were controlled for (Adjusted Odds Ratio = 1.20, 95% CI =
1.03, 1.41). Women who used Chinese herbs and acupuncture and no other
therapies had significantly lower acculturation scores. (Adjusted Odds
Ratio = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.68,0.99) Socio-economic status, a common predictor
of complementary and alternative medicine use in other studies of the
general population in the United States, did not predict the use of
complementary and alternative medicine in this sample.
CONCLUSION: Chinese immigrant women in the United
States utilize two systems of medicine: Western conventional medicine
and TCM. TCM is used across acculturation levels, but higher levels
of acculturation are associated with more mainstream CAM use and lower
levels are associated with using TCM only. As Chinese immigrant women
adapt to American culture they tend to use a greater variety of healthcare
practices and to adopt more mainstream CAM practices, but they also
continue to use TCM.
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