Table 3

Knowledge of, Experience with, Expectations about, and Willingness to Try Five CAM Therapies*


Acupuncture
(N = 249)
Chiropractic
(N = 249)
Massage
(N = 249)
Meditation
(N = 249)
T'ai Chi
(N = 249)

Knowledge about Therapy (%)





     1 – 2 (1="no knowledge")
69
44
52
72
91
     3
17
22
24
15
6
     4 – 5 (5="a lot of knowledge")
14
34
24
13
3
Ever tried therapy (%)
18
54
38
27
8
Ever tried therapy for LBP (%)
11
45
24
7
0.4
Median helpfulness for LBP among prior users (0 to 10 scale)
5
6
7
5
**
Pain or harm reported by prior users (%)
13
23
13
5
16
Median expectation of helpfulness for current LBP (0 to 10 scale)
5
5
7
3
5
Did not provide expectation rating (%)
25
10
9
12
24
High expectations of helpfulness for current LBP (7 to 10 on 0 to 10 scale) (%)
19
28
48
15
16
Very likely to try therapy if primary care provider thought reasonable and no extra cost (%)
64
51
69
27
41
Very likely to try therapy if primary care provider thought reasonable and $10 co-pay (%)
51
42
56
NA
NA

NA = Not Asked. * Each column refers to a specific therapy and the specific question about the therapy is shown in the first column. ** Only 1 person had tried t'ai chi for low back pain previously. All variables, except expectations of helpfulness of current LBP (where % are given in the table) have missing values for < 5% of respondents.

Sherman et al. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2004 4:9   doi:10.1186/1472-6882-4-9