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Demographic and health-related factors associated with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in multiple sclerosis

Department of Neurology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA, shintol{at}ohsu.edu

V Yadav

Department of Neurology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Portland, OR 97239 USA

C Morris

Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA

J A Lapidus

Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA

A Senders

National College of Naturopathic Medicine, Portland, OR 97201, USA

D Bourdette

Department of Neurology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Portland, OR 97239 USA

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use is high among people with multiple sclerosis (MS), yet there are no reports on the association between CAM use and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in MS. To examine this relationship, a cross-sectional survey and SF-12 was used to collect demographic and HRQL data from 1667 survey respondents. Factors examined for their association with CAM use included, age, gender, race, self-reported disease severity, disease-modifying drug (DMT) use, MS duration, MS type, education level, physical and mental well-being. Multiple regression analysis revealed that female gender, high education level, longer MS duration, lower physical well-being and not using DMT were independent factors associated with both ‘ever’ and ‘current’ CAM use. The finding that a drop in physical component score (PCS) of the SF-12 is independently associated with an increased odds of ‘ever’ CAM use, ‘current’ CAM use, and ‘past’ CAM reflect an association of CAM use with PCS regardless of time of use. Although, temporality of this relationship cannot be established, as this was a cross-sectional study, a longitudinal study is warranted so that we can establish if HRQL is predictive for CAM use in MS.

Key Words: complementary medicine • health survey • multiple sclerosis • quality of life

Multiple Sclerosis, Vol. 12, No. 1, 94-100 (2006)
DOI: 10.1191/1352458506ms1230oa


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