Complementary and alternative medicine use among infertile women attending infertility specialty clinics in South Korea: does perceived severity matter?

Table 4 CAM modalities used by infertile women based on their perceived level of disease severity

CAM modalities	Overall n = 167 (%)	High perceived severity (4,5) ^# n = 110 (%)	Low perceived severity (1,2,3) ^# n = 57(%)	P-value
Natural Product*
Multivitamin (folic acid, iron supplement, etc.)	141 (84.4)	93 (84.5)	48 (84.2)	0.043^a
Korean black raspberry (Rubus coreanus/Rubi Fructus)	74 (44.3)	54 (49.1)	20 (35.1)	0.008^a
Ginseng and red ginseng	63 (37.7)	50 (45.5)	13 (22.8)	< 0.001^a
Mugwort	36 (21.6)	26 (23.6)	10 (17.5)	0.143^a
Brown rice	46 (27.5)	30 (27.3)	16 (28.1)	0.509^a
Blood circulation supplement pills	15 (9.0)	14 (12.7)	1 (1.8)	0.006^b
Herbal tea	9 (5.4)	9 (8.2)	0 (0.0)	0.013^b
Mind and body practices*
Lower body bath/ hot spring bath	53 (31.7)	39 (35.5)	14 (24.6)	0.028^a
Yoga	45 (25.9)	31 (28.2)	14 (24.6)	0.242^a
Pray/meditation	26 (15.6)	18 (16.4)	8 (14.0)	0.400^a
Psychotherapy	6 (3.6)	6 (5.5)	0 (0.0)	0.084^b
Hypogastric breathing	4 (2.4)	1 (0.9)	3 (5.3)	0.305^b
Chiropractic	3 (1.8)	3 (2.7)	0 (0.0)	0.278^b
Massage	15 (9.0)	12 (10.9)	3 (5.3)	0.173^b
Magnetic therapy	3 (1.8)	1 (0.9)	2 (3.5)	0.566^b
Other complementary health approaches (Korean traditional medicine)*
Herbal medicine	121 (72.5)	86 (78.2)	35 (61.4)	0.001^a
Moxibustion	32 (19.2)	23 (20.9)	9 (15.8)	0.179^a
Acupuncture	23 (13.8)	18 (16.4)	5 (8.8)	0.075^b
Bee venom therapy	8 (4.8)	6 (5.5)	2 (3.5)	0.483^b

* Columns do not add up to 100% due to use of multiple treatments
^# Perceived severity of disease was self-rated by participants on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all, 5 = Very much). Those who rated their severity from 1 to 3 were categorized as ‘low perceived severity’ group, whereas those who scored from 4 to 5 were put in ‘high perceived severity’ group
^a Denotes Pearson’s Chi-square tests
^b Denotes Fisher’s exact test

ISSN: 2662-7671