Complementary and alternative medication (CAM) use, parental beliefs, and communication about asthma: An urban perspective

Asthma is the most common and largest growing chronic childhood illness in the U.S. (Kattan et al., 1997), and it disproportionately affects children from urban, minority, and low-income backgrounds (Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). One of the leading causes for high morbidity and mortality rates of childhood asthma is poor asthma management (Strunk, Ford, & Taggart, 2002). Most children, however, are not solely responsible for their asthma management. Particularly in younger children, parents play an integral role in choosing the types of treatments that are utilized to control asthma, as well as in children's adherence to medications. Furthermore, asthma management is affected by parents' ability to communicate with their healthcare providers about their beliefs and complementary and alternative treatment approaches (Mansour, Lanphear, & DeWitt, 2000).; This study aimed to utilize quantitative methods to explore the nature of complementary and alternative medication (CAM) use among parents of ethnic minority children with asthma. This study also aimed to explore how the following factors impact Risks for Nonadherence to traditional medications and Asthma Control: Parental Beliefs about CAM, Parental Beliefs about Traditional Medications, Parental Communication with Healthcare Providers, and Healthcare Provider Attitudes about CAM. The sample includes sixty-six parents of children diagnosed with asthma from three urban health centers.; A series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to explore associations among primary study variables. Results revealed that positive Parental Beliefs about Traditional Medications were significantly associated with a higher number of risks factors for Nonadherence. Parental Beliefs about CAM were also significantly associated with greater Risks for Nonadherence and poorer Asthma Control. Findings suggest that positive beliefs about either traditional or complementary and alternative medicine are associated with empirically-established indicators of negative asthma-related outcomes. Future research should examine if a healthy skepticism about the impact of medications on a child's asthma symptoms may drive parents to take other adaptive asthma management actions, such as organizing their household and utilizing caregiving strategies that mazimize control over asthma triggers, thus resulting in fewer asthma symptoms.