Expertise about herbs and dietary supplements among diverse health professionals

Table 3 Communications practicesscale scores by demographic and practice characteristics among 852 subjects who had seen patients in the past 30 days.

Characteristic	N	Communications Practices Scale Score(Scale range 0.0 – 10.0)	P value*
Overall mean	852	2.20 ± 1.92
Profession (note 1†)			<.001
Physician/PA	335	2.53 ± 1.98
Nurse	221	2.10 ± 1.93
Nutritionist	117	2.45 ± 2.04
Pharmacist	39	1.91 ± 1.97
Student	140	1.45 ± 1.38
Gender			.73
Males	224	2.12 ± 1.83
Females	628	2.23 ± 1.96
Age (years) (note 2†)			<.001
≤30	183	1.55 ± 1.36
31–40	162	2.37 ± 1.92
41–50	270	2.53 ± 2.10
>50	237	2.22 ± 1.98
Practice			<.001
Faculty/In Practice	600	2.41 ± 2.04
Trainees	252	1.70 ± 1.50
Reside in North Carolina			.001
Yes	441	1.97 ± 1.78
No	411	2.45 ± 2.04
Use ANY supplements (note 3 †)			<.001
No	131	1.56 ± 1.40
1–3	276	1.83 ± 1.67
4–8	265	2.26 ± 1.86
≥9	180	3.16 ± 2.31
Enrollment Period			.002
Fall	247	1.88 ± 1.72
Spring	605	2.33 ± 1.99

Note 1: Pairwise comparisons among the 5 professional groups: Students less than Dietitians Physicians, and Nurses, all P ≤ .006; Nurses less than Physicians P =.004; and Pharmacists less than Physicians, P = .02.
Note 2: Pairwise comparisons among the 4 age groups: ≤ 30 years old less than the other age groups, all P ≤ .003.
Note 3: Pairwise comparisons among the 4 herb/supplement use groups: None and 1–3 less than 4–8 and ≥ 9, all P ≤ .005; 4–8 less than ≥ 9, P <.001.
*Kruskal Wallis Test for initial multiple group analysis; Mann Whitney U tests for two-group comparisons.
† Pairwise comparisons analyzed using Mann Whitney U tests

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