HEALTH SERVICE RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS
Please note: All posters will be displayed in Salons 10-12.

FRIDAY, 5:45-6:30 PM

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Wallander J, Wells T*.

Exemplary data to examine patterns of CAM use by minority groups in the US.

Sociometrics Corporation janw@socio.com *Presenting author

PURPOSE: Although CAM studies increasingly provide information on patterns of CAM use in the general U.S. population, a shortage of information on CAM use in racial and ethnic minority populations continues. To enhance the understanding of CAM use by racial and ethnic minority populations, Sociometrics obtained funding from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine to develop the Minority CAM Data Archive (M-CAMDA).

METHODS: We first conducted a literature search and identified 54 scientifically sound CAM-related studies published in leading medical and health journals. These studies were conducted in the U.S., based on quantitative data, include sufficient sample sizes of at least one U.S. minority group, and were published recently (most were published since 2003). A panel of five nationally recognized CAM expert scientists reviewed and evaluated each study according to specified theoretical, methodological, and statistical criteria as well as utility for secondary analysis and importance for CAM science. Panel members rated 23 reviewed studies as exemplary and worthy of inclusion in the data archive. Sociometrics is currently acquiring selected datasets from original investigators and has begun processing and archiving acquired datasets according to Sociometrics' standardized archiving procedures.

RESULTS: We have thus far acquired 7 datasets (5 of them nationally representative), containing over 8,000 variables based on information collected from over 75,000 persons. The data contained in M-CAMDA offer researchers information on use of up to 27 types of CAM therapies across several race/ethnic groups (whites, African Americans, Latinos, Asians), and across various reference periods (past month, past 12 months, lifetime). M-CAMDA will allow researchers to estimate and compare group-specific CAM usage rates, to focus on particular CAM therapies used by racial/ethnic groups, and to uncover correlates of CAM use. The data archive will give researchers opportunities to conduct their own secondary analyses and to generate results not previously published by the original investigators.

CONCLUSIONS: Being easy to use, easily-accessible, fast, and efficient, M-CAMDA will serve a wide user constituency (health researchers, social scientists, educators, students, and policy makers) and will foster evidence-based research in on the patterns of CAM use by minority groups in the U.S. by facilitating access to and statistical analysis of scientifically sound CAM datasets.

 

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