Table 2 Content of 2002, 2007, and 2012 NHIS complementary medicine questionnaires

Practitioner-based therapies included in survey

Acupuncture

Chiropractic care replaced with chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation

Added craniosacral therapy

Rreiki no longer distinguished from other energy healing therapies

Modified list of traditional healers

Ayurveda

Added movement therapies (Feldenkreis,

Allowed participants to report whether chiropractor or osteopathic physician provided manipulation therapy

Alexander Technique, pilates, Trager

Biofeedback

Psychophysical integration)

Added Traditional Healers (Curandero, Espirtista,

Chelation therapy

Hierbero or Yerbera, Shaman, Botanica,

Native American Healer, Sobador)

Chiropractic care

Removed folk medicine

Energy healing therapy/Reiki

Folk medicine (such as Curanderismo or Native American healing)

Hypnosis

Massage

Naturopathy

Self-care therapies included in survey

Nonvitamin, nonmineral dietary supplements (NVNMDS) (35 total)

Included 44 NVNMDS on flashcard

Pared down set of questions on vitamin and mineral supplements

High dose or megavitamin therapy

Added vitamin and mineral supplements

Expanded list of NVNMDS to 21 on flashcard and 98 in lookup table (119 total)

Homeopathic treatment

Removed high dose or megavitamin therapies

Classified meditation into 3 broad categories (mantra, mindfulness, and spiritual)

Special diets (vegetarian, macrobiotic, Atkins, Pritikin, Ornish, zone)

Added South Beach to special diets

Removed breathing exercises as separate therapy but included it within other therapies (hypnosis, biofeedback, meditation, guided imagery, progressive relaxation, yoga, tai chi, qi gong)

Yoga, tai chi, qi gong

Pared down questions on prayer for your own health

Relaxation techniques (meditation, guided imagery, progressive relaxation, deep breathing exercises)

Removed zone and South Beach from special diets

Prayer for your own health

Removed prayer for your own health

Information collected for each therapy

12 month prevalence

Added lifetime prevalence

Added whether all or some of the costs were covered by health insurance

Frequency of use in past 12 months for practitioner-based therapies

Added frequency of use in past 12 months for self- care therapies

Modified questions on out-of-pocket costs to allow for different ways of reporting

Use for specific health problem or condition

Added out-of-pocket costs in past 12 months (per visit/purchase)

Cost of self-help materials expanded to include both practitioner-based and self-help therapies

Reasons for use (conventional care would not help, conventional care was too expensive, combination of conventional care and complementary medicine would help, recommended by conventional provider, thought it would be interesting to try)

Added whether also using conventional care for the same health problem as using complementary therapy

Narrowed questions on reasons for use to the 3 therapies most important for health; did not ask for chelation and Ayurveda; asked collectively for movement, traditional healers, and special diets

Added additional reasons for using complementary therapy (energy, wellness, immune function, recommended by family, friends, or coworkers)

Greatly expanded reasons for use to include wide range of wellness-related reasons, motivators, and outcomes

How much therapy helped health problem

Added how much therapy helped most important reason for using it

Importance of use of therapy

Added how much use of therapy helped the specific health problem

Disclosure to conventional provider

Whether insurance covered any of the Costs

Added importance of use of therapy

Modified disclosure to apply to personal care provider

Added reason for not disclosing use

Added sources of information about therapy

Additional information collected

Numerous health conditions added to NHIS core

Added additional health conditions to NHIS core

Modified list of health conditions added to NHIS core based on prevalence data from prior surveys

Collected detailed follow-up information for up to two NVNMDS

Added questions about having a personal health care provider and whether he/she is the same practitioner for complementary therapies

Expanded list of reasons for using NVNMDS and vitamin and mineral supplements

Expanded child questionnaire to be almost identical to adult; limited to children age 4+

Added reasons didn’t use certain therapies (acupuncture, chiropractic, NVNMDS, yoga, and meditation)

Added child questionnaire with subset of items from adult survey (12 month prevalence, use for specific health problem, use of dietary supplements for sports)