# Presentation: 524514

## Use of Spiritual Healing Therapy in Relation to Race and Ethnicity

- Catherine Simile, Ph.D. and  Hanyu Ni, Ph.D.
- Division of Health Interview Statistics
-  National Center for Health Statistics

## Background

- • 	Increasing trend in the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
- Overall users tend to be women, white, more educated, have higher income and be covered by health insurance

## Background--continued

- Reported high use of spiritual healing and prayer as one of these modalities
- Unknown relationship between spiritual healing and prayer and race and ethnicity

## Objective 

- To examine the utilization of spiritual healing and prayer among US adults in relation to race and ethnicity

## Methods

**Data source:  **
- 1999 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
- Face-to-face interviews

## Methods—cont’d

- Response rate:
- Household –90%
- Sample Adult--70%
- 30,801 adults aged 18 and older

## Measure of Prayer and Spiritual Healing

- Use in past year
- Self-reported
- One of 12 listed CAM therapies and other

## Question

- People may also use alternative health care services.
- I’d like to ask you about your use of some alternative kinds of therapies and treatments.  During the past 12 months have you used...Spiritual healing or prayer?

## Other Variables

- Health insurance coverage (y/n)
- General health status
- Race and Ethnicity
-     Hispanic
- 	Non-Hispanic White
- 	Non-Hispanic Black

## Other Variables-cont’d

- Gender
- Region of the country
- Age
- Education
- Income
- Other sociodemographic characteristics

## Statistical analysis:

- Data weighted for population estimates
- Adjusted for non-response
- SUDAAN software used to adjust for cluster sample design

## Characteristics of study subjects by race/ethnicity

|  |  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Characteristic | % Hispanic | % NH-White | % NH-Black |
| Age |  |  |  |
|    18- | 19.1 | 11.5 | 15.9 |
|    25- | 26.1 | 17.4 | 22.1 |
|    35- | 23.3 | 22.0 | 23.7 |
|    45- | 14.3 | 18.5 | 16.7 |
|    55+ | 17.1 | 30.6 | 21.6 |
| Female | 50.6 | 51.8 | 55.6 |

## Characteristics of study subjects by race/ethnicity-cont’d

| Characteristic | % Hispanic | % NH- White | % NH-Black |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Education |  |  |  |
|   <12 | 38.8 | 11.7 | 20.9 |
|   12-15 | 45.3 | 53.5 | 55.9 |
|   16+ | 15.9 | 34.9 | 23.3 |
| Health insurance, yes | 66.0 | 89.8 | 81.4 |
| Family income
<$ 20,000 | 24.3 | 13.7 | 27.9 |

## Percent of adults who used 13 types of complementary and alternative medicine in the past year: United States, 1999

| Modality | % | 95% C. I. |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Spiritual healing or prayer | 13.7 |    13.1-14.2 |
| Herbal medicine | 9.6 |      9.1-10.0 |
| Chiropractic therapy | 7.6 |      7.2 - 7.9 |
| Lifestyle diet | 6.9 |      6.5 - 7.3 |
| Massage therapy | 6.4 |      6.0 - 6.8 |
| Relaxation | 5.0 |      4.7 - 5.4 |
| Homeopathy | 3.1 |      2.9 - 3.3 |

## Percent of adults who used 13 types of complementary and alternative medicine in the past year: United States, 1999-cont’d

| Characteristic | % | 95% C.I. |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Imagery | 1.7 | 1.5 - 1.9 |
| Acupuncture | 1.4 | 1.2 - 1.5 |
| Energy | 1.1 | 0.9 - 1.3 |
| Hypnosis | 0.5 | 0.4 - 0.6 |
| Biofeedback | 0.5 | 0.4 - 0.6 |
| Other | 0.3 | 0.2 - 0.3 |

## Percent Using Spiritual Healing or Prayer by Race/Ethnicity

## Gender

## Region of the Country

## Age

## Education (years)

## Family Income

## Health Insurance

## Respondent-Reported Health Status

## Use of Spiritual healing or Prayer in relation to race/ethnicity: Results from logistic regression

| Race/ethnicity | Odds Ratio | 95% CI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Model 1 (unadjusted) |  |  |
|   Hispanic | 0.44 | 0.37-0.53 |
|   NH-White | 0.80 | 0.70-0.91 |
|   NH-Black | 1.00 | - |
| Model 2*  |  |  |
| (adjusted) |  |  |
|   Hispanic | 0.51 | 0.42-0.61 |
|   NH-White | 0.78 | 0.68-0.90 |

- *Adjusted for age, gender, health insurance status, education