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Rural Older Adults’ Beliefs and Behavior Related to Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use

Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1084 tarcury{at}wfubmc.edu

Ronny A. Bell, PhD, MS

Mara Z. Vitolins, DrPH, MPH, RD

Sara A. Quandt, PhD

Section on Epidemiology, Department of Public Health Sciences, at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Little research has considered older adults’ health beliefs related to the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Based on a conceptual model of health selfmanagement, this analysis delineates health beliefs and behaviors related to CAM use among community-dwelling rural elders. In-depth interviews were conducted with 145 female and male African Americans, Native Americans, and Whites aged 70 and older residing in two rural, central North Carolina counties. CAM therapies are widely used but are largely limited to folk and home remedies and vitamin and mineral supplements. These rural elders integrate CAM use with conventional health care, and they are concerned that remedies they use not interfere with prescribed conventional treatment. They justify CAM use in terms of advice from their physician or nurse or from published sources. Most rural elders state that their knowledge of CAM therapies is limited.

Key Words: health beliefs • rural health • minority health • health self-management • home and folk remedies

Complementary Health Practice Review, Vol. 10, No. 1, 33-44 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1533210105274453


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