Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Aug;34(5):552-72.
doi: 10.1177/0733464813495109. Epub 2013 Jul 19.

Use of Complementary Therapies for Health Promotion Among Older Adults

Thomas A Arcury  1 , Ha T Nguyen  2 , Joanne C Sandberg  2 , Rebecca H Neiberg  2 , Kathryn P Altizer  2 , Ronny A Bell  2 , Joseph G Grzywacz  3 , Wei Lang  2 , Sara A Quandt  2
Affiliations

Use of Complementary Therapies for Health Promotion Among Older Adults

Thomas A Arcury et al. J Appl Gerontol. 2015 Aug.

Abstract

This article describes the types of complementary therapies used by older adults for health promotion, and delineates the predisposing, enabling, and need factors associated with their use. One-hundred ninety-five African American and White participants (age 65+) completed a baseline interview and up to six sets of three daily follow-up interviews at monthly intervals. Complementary therapies for health promotion included home remedies, specific foods or beverages, herbs, supplements, vitamins, over-the-counter (OTC) medicine, prayer, exercise, and being active. Although gender, ethnicity, education, and trust in doctors were associated with the use of complementary therapies for health promotion, health information seeking was the predisposing factor most often associated. The enabling factors were also associated with their use. Health information seeking, which reflects a wellness lifestyle, had the most consistent associations with complementary therapy use for health promotion. This health self-management for health promotion may have positive effects on future medical expenditures.

Keywords: complementary and alternative medicine; disease prevention; health promotion; minoirty aging.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

    1. Aday LA, Andersen R. A framework for the study of access to medical care. Health Services Research. 1974;9:208–220. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Altizer KP, Nguyen HT, Neiberg RH, Quandt SA, Grzywacz JG, Lang W, Arcury TA. Relationship between non-prescribed therapy use for illness prevention and health promotion and health related quality of life. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 2012 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anderson R, Newman JF. Societal and individual determinants of medical care utilization in the United States. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly Health and Society. 1973;51:95–124. - PubMed
    1. Arcury TA, Quandt SA. Participant recruitment for qualitative research: A site-based approach to community research in complex societies. Human Organization. 1999;58:128–133.
    1. Arcury TA, Quandt SA, McDonald J, Bell RA. Faith and health self-management of rural older adults. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology. 2000;15:55–74. - PubMed

Publication types

Substances