Use of complementary and alternative medicine by cancer patients in Colombia

Table 1 Sociodemographic characteristics of participants

Characteristics	CAM users (n = 1610)		CAM non-users (n = 1507)		Total		p value
Characteristics	n	%	n	%	n	%
Age
Mean (Range)	57.9(14.1)		61.4(15.1)		59.6 (18–98)		< 0.001
Sex
Men	482	29.9	676	44.9	1158	37.2	< 0.001
Women	1128	70.1	831	55.1	1959	62.8	< 0.001
Marital status
Married	973	60.4	899	59.6	1872	60.1	0.358
Widow or Divorced	263	16.3	250	16.5	513	16.5
Single	374	23.2	358	23.8	732	23.5
Religion
Catholic	1222	75.9	1217	80.8	2439	78.3	< 0.001
Other	331	20.5	217	14.4	548	17.5
No religion	50	3.1	29	1.9	130	4.2
Socioeconomic condition
Low	1037	64.4	989	65.5	2026	65.0	0.762
Medium	509	31.6	462	30.7	971	31.2
High	64	4.0	56	3.7	120	3.8
Education
None or primary school	520	32.3	644	42.7	1164	37.3	< 0.001
Secondary or technical	855	53.2	702	46.6	1557	50.0
University or higher	235	14.6	161	10.7	396	12.7
City-Region
Barranquilla	262	16.3	263	17.5	525	16.9	< 0.001
Bogota	239	14.8	287	19.0	526	16.9
Bucaramanga	352	21.9	176	11.7	528	16.9
Cali	278	17.3	248	17.3	526	16.9
Medellin	178	11.1	308	20.4	486	15.6
Neiva	301	18.7	225	14.9	526	16.9
Place of residence
Urban	1243	77.2	1175	78.0	1243	77.6	0.639
Rural	367	22.8	332	22.0	699	22.4	0.639
Health insurance
Contributory	853	53.0	875	58.1	1728	55.4	0.042
Subsidized	680	42.2	577	38.3	1257	40.3
Other	77	4.8	55	3.7	132	4.2

The contributory health insurance regimen corresponds to people with payment capacity (payroll or independent contribution) whereas the subsidized system corresponds to people without payment capacity

ISSN: 2662-7671