Visits to Complementary and Alternative Medicine Providers by Children and Adolescents in the United States
Section snippets
Sample
This study involved a cross-sectional analysis of the Household Component of the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a subsample of the 1995 National Health Interview Survey. MEPS is a nationally representative random sample of the US civilian noninstitutionalized population, designed to provide estimates of health care use, expenditures, sources of payment, and insurance coverage.30 MEPS Household Component is a longitudinal, overlapping panel design consisting of 5 rounds over a
Survey Respondents
The primary survey respondent was a biologic parent in 86% and a step or foster parent in less than 1% of cases. Of the remaining subjects, 4% of respondents were unknown, 3% responded for themselves, and the rest were other family members.
Of the total sample, over 70% had 2 parents living at home and 75.7% of their mothers were married. About 20% of subjects reported a family income under the poverty level for 1996, and 24.1% was ≥400% of the poverty level. Overall, 12.2% were uninsured, with
DISCUSSION
This study is one of the first to describe the use of CAM professionals by a nationally representative pediatric and adolescent sample. Our study adds to the understanding of prevalence, use patterns, and costs of visits to CAM providers and subsequent practitioner-provided therapy use. The most common CAM providers in this study are similar to those found in adult studies.1, 34
Our 2.0% overall prevalence is lower than other studies in pediatric and adolescent populations. Over the past 10
CONCLUSION
Two percent of parents reported that their child consulted a CAM provider for health reasons. The independent associated factors for these visits were female gender, older adolescent age, good perceived physical health, dissatisfaction with the quality of care from the USC, and parental CAM use. In future research, it will be important to determine the effectiveness and satisfaction with CAM use as well as which therapies are used for which conditions and why such a low disclosure rate exists.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Funded by MCHB grant 2T71MC00012-06.
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