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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Alternative therapy use by elderly African Americans attending a community clinic | | Author(s) | Shelley A Sternberg, Anjana Chandran, Monica Sikka |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 51, no 12, December 2003 |
| Pages | pp 1768-1772 |
| Source | http://www.americangeriatrics.org http://www.blackwellpublishing.com |
| Keywords | Black people ; Alternative medicine ; Drugs ; Health clinics ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | The use of orally ingested alternative therapies (OAT) is described, with reference to 102 older OAT users and 100 non-users at a primary care geriatric medicine clinic of the University of Chicago. OAT subjects were a frail group, comprising mainly African Americans, with an average of 5.2 medical conditions and 4.5 medications; 52% had at least one activities of daily living (ADL) impairment. Non-users had more documented medical conditions and medications and lower median household income. The most popular OAT products were multivitamins (65%), vitamin E (42%) and calcium (31%). 97% of users reported concurrent OAT and prescription medication use. The patients took OAT to supplement their diet (23%) and stay well (15%), as well as for various medical conditions. Influencing factors for OAT use were media advertisements (37%), doctors' advice (36%) and immediate family members (19%). 60% of OAT users discussed their OAT use with their doctors. Community-dwelling, primarily African-American, elders are using OAT, despite physical frailty and limited financial resources. OAT users are healthier and wealthier than non-users. A large national survey of OAT use by minority elders could explore these findings. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040302221 A |
| Classmark | TKE: LK3: LLD: L6: 3F: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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