Use of Mind-Body Medicine and Improved Self-Rated Health: Results from a National Survey

Article Sidebar

Requires Subscription or Fee PDF (USD 25)
Published: Sep 30, 2011
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5750/ijpcm.v1i3.111

Main Article Content

Long T. Nguyen
Research Fellow, Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Roger B Davis
Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Ted J Kaptchuk
Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Russell S Phillips
Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Beth Israel Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Abstract

Background:  Among the 20% of US adults who use mind-body (MB) medicine, half also use other types of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Our prior work showed that CAM use is associated with better self-reported health.  However, little is known about the association between the use of MB therapies and perceptions of health.Objective: To determine the association between the use of mind-body therapies and self-rated health.Design: We analyzed cross-sectional data from the 2007 US National Health Interview Survey (n=23,393). We partitioned the CAM-user respondents into 3 mutually exclusive groups:  1. MB-only, 2. Both MB and Non-MB-CAM (MB-Plus) and 3. Non-MB-CAM only. We used multivariable logistic regression to model the likelihoods of respondents’ reporting ‘Excellent’ health and reporting ‘Better’ health than the prior year. We controlled for socio-demographic, clinical and behavioral confounders and evaluated the models.Results: 8% of U.S. adults used MB-Only, 18% used non-MB-CAM and 10% used both. Compared to users of Non-MB-CAM, users of MB-Only (adjusted-OR=1.13,95%CI=[0.96,1.33]) and MB-Plus (adjusted-OR=1.09,95%CI=[0.94,1.26]) were not significantly more likely to report ‘Excellent health’. However, compared to users of Non-MB-CAM, users of MB-Plus were more likely (adjusted-OR=1.48,95%CI=[1.28,1.71]) to report ‘Better’ health over the prior year while users of MB alone were not.Conclusion: Respondents who used MB in addition to other CAM therapies were significantly more likely to report improvement in self-rated health over the prior year. Large prospective trials are needed to establish whether MB therapies, used as an adjunctive treatment with other CAM, will lead to improvement in health.

Article Details

Issue
Vol. 1 No. 3 (2011): September
Section
Regular Articles

References

. NCCAM. (2004). Whole Medical System: An Overview. NCCAM Backgrounder.

. Kaptchuk, T.J. (2000). The web that has no weaver: understanding Chinese medicine. Rev. ed. Chicago, Ill: Contemporary Books.

. Cannon, W. (1932). The Wisdom of the Body. New York, NY: Norton.

. Ader, R., Cohen, N. & Felten, D. (1995). Psychoneuroimmunology: interactions between the nervous system and the immune system. Lancet 345 (8942), 99-103.

. Kerr, C.E., Shaw, J.R., Wasserman, R.H., Chen, V.W., Kanojia, A., Bayer T. et al. (2008). Tactile acuity in experienced Tai Chi practitioners: evidence for use dependent plasticity as an effect of sensory-attentional training. Experimental Brain Research 188 (2), 317-322.

. Barnes, P.M., Bloom, B. & Nahin, R.L. (2007).

Complementary and alternative medicine use among adults and children: United States, National Health Statistics Report 10 (12), 1-23.

. Nguyen, L.T., Davis, R.B., Kaptchuk, T.J. & Phillips, R.S. (2011). Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Self-rated Health Status: Results from a National Survey. Journal of General Internal Medicine 26 (4), 399.

. NCCAM. What is CAM? (2007). NCCAM Backgrounder.

. Astin, J.A., Shapiro, S.L., Eisenberg, D.M. & Forys, K.L. (2003). Mind-body medicine: state of the science, implications for practice. Journal of the American Board of Family Practice 16 (2), 131-147.

. Tindle, H.A., Davis, R.B., Phillips, R.S. & Eisenberg, D.M. (2005). Trends in use of complementary and alternative medicine by US adults: 1997-2002. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 11 (1), 42-49.

. DeSalvo, K.B., Bloser, N., Reynolds, K., He, J. & Muntner, P. (2006). Mortality prediction with a single general self-rated health question. A meta-analysis. Journal of General Internal Medicine 21 (3), 267-275.

. Fylkesnes, K. (1993). Determinants of health care utilization - visits and referrals. Scandinavian Journal of Social Medicine 21 (1), 40-50.

. CDC-NCHS. 2007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) Survey Description Document. June 2008 [cited 2010 Oct 4]; Available from: ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentation/NHIS/2007/srvydesc.pdf

. Kaptchuk, T.J. & Eisenberg, D.M. (2001). Varieties of healing. 2: a taxonomy of unconventional healing practices. Annals of Internal Medicine 135 (3),196-204.

. CDC-NCHS. 2007 National Health Interview Survey Questionnaire - Sample Adult & Adult CAM. [Electronic - pdf file] 2007 [cited 2010 Oct 4]; 2007 National Health Interview Survey]. Available from: ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Survey_Questionnaires/NHIS/2007/English/qalthealt.pdf

. Ware, J.E. & Kosinski, M. (2001). Interpreting SF-36 summary health measures: a response. Quality of Life Research 10 (5), 405-413; discussion 15-20.

. Chaudhry, S., Jin, L. & Meltzer, D. (2005). Use of a self-report-generated Charlson Comorbidity Index for predicting mortality. Medical Care 43 (6), 607-615.

. Birdee, G.S., Wayne, P.M., Davis, R.B., Phillips, R.S. & Yeh, G.Y. (2009). T'ai chi and qigong for health: patterns of use in the United States. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 15 (9), 969-973.

. Vitetta, L., Anton, B., Cortizo, F. & Sali, A. (2005) Mind-body medicine: stress and its impact on overall health and longevity. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1057, 492-505.

. Kaptchuk, T.J. (2002). The placebo effect in alternative medicine: can the performance of a healing ritual have clinical significance? Annals of Internal Medicine 136 (11), 817-825.

. Rains, J.C. & Penzien, D.B. (2005). Behavioral research and the double-blind placebo-controlled methodology: challenges in applying the biomedical standard to behavioral headache research. Headache 45 (5),479-486.

. Rains, J.C., Penzien, D.B., McCrory, D.C. & Gray, R.N. (2005). Behavioral headache treatment: history, review of the empirical literature, and methodological critique. Headache 45 (Supplement 2), S92-109.

. Bloom, B.S., Retbi, A., Dahan, S. & Jonsson, E. (2000). Evaluation of randomized controlled trials on complementary and alternative medicine. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care 16 (1), 13-21.