C0271 - Age and Gender Differences in the Attitudes Towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Gastroenterology

Joanne Song, MD, Ying Gibbens, MD, PhD, Lindsey Philpot, PhD, MPH, Priyal Fadadu, MD, MS, Isabel Green, MD, Xiao Jing (Iris) Wang, MD
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

Introduction: While there is growing evidence to support Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) such as diet and mind-body interventions in Gastroenterology (GI), little is known about the current state of CAM use and acceptance. Prior studies have reported more CAM use and positive attitudes among females, but they are not representative of current, U.S. patients. The aim of our study is to identify age and gender differences associated with the attitudes towards CAM therapies among GI patients in a tertiary care setting.

Methods: A total of 218 patients consecutively seen in general GI clinic voluntarily completed a survey evaluating their prior experience with and attitudes towards 1) “Conventional Therapies” such surgery and medications, 2) “Manipulative Practices” such as chiropractic and massages, 3) “Mind-Body Interventions” such as psychotherapy, yoga and hypnotherapy, 4) “Diet” such as diet modifications, supplements and probiotics, and 5) “Cannabis” such as CBD and THC. The survey also gathered data on background such as age and gender.

Results: Acceptance of CAM was generally higher among female patients and those aged less than 60 years. (Figure 1) Younger patients were more willing to try cannabis (p=0.004) and manipulative practices (p=0.017) than patients aged 60 and up. Female patients were more willing to try mind-body interventions (p=0.01) than their male counterparts. Mind-body interventions received the least acceptance overall. Among those who have previously used CAM, there was no significant differences in the perceived benefit when stratified by age and gender. However, female and younger patients generally reported less satisfaction with their prior experience of conventional therapies. (Table 1)

Discussion: Female and younger patients display more openness towards CAM that is comparable to standard therapy. In fact, they report less satisfaction with their prior use of conventional therapies, which makes them a good target for introducing evidence-guided CAM to augment disease management. More studies are warranted to investigate the origin of age and gender differences in the perception of CAM, specifically in the categories of cannabis, mind-body interventions and manipulative practices, with the goal of expanding the knowledge of CAM among patients and clinicians in Gastroenterology.




Disclosures:


Joanne Song, MD, Ying Gibbens, MD, PhD, Lindsey Philpot, PhD, MPH, Priyal Fadadu, MD, MS, Isabel Green, MD, Xiao Jing (Iris) Wang, MD. C0271 - Age and Gender Differences in the Attitudes Towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Gastroenterology, ACG 2022 Annual Scientific Meeting Abstracts. Charlotte, NC: American College of Gastroenterology.