Recent studies support the prevalent use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the United States. However, little is know about such use among racial and ethnic minority populations. Because we know that racial and ethnic disparities exist in health status and use of health care services, and the elimination of existing patterns of widespread racial and ethnic disparities is an official goal of American health policy, it is important to understand patterns and correlates of CAM use among minority populations. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) provides a rich set of data for analyzing the use and correlates of CAM among racial and ethnic minorities, including both self-administered and provider-based therapies. These nationally representative population-based datasets provide analytic power to examine sub-groups of racial and ethnic minorities previously excluded from most studies of CAM. Because the data provides information on health status, health behaviors, insurance coverage, out-of-pocket costs, and demographic characteristics of respondents, we will be able to examine hypothesis regarding the use of CAM among racial and ethnic minorities. We will examine whether factors associated with disparities in conventional medicine predict differential use of CAM therapies.
