Perceived Benefit of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) for Back Pain: A National Survey

Abstract

Background: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is commonly used to treat back pain, but little is known about factors associated with improvement. Methods: We used data from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey to examine the associations between the perceived helpfulness of various CAM therapies for back pain. Results: Approximately 6% of the US population used CAM to treat their back pain in 2002. Sixty percent of respondents who used CAM for back pain perceived a "great deal" of benefit. Using multivariable logistic regression, the factor associated with perceived benefit from CAM modalities was reporting that a reason for using CAM was that "conventional medical treatment would not help" (odds ratio