Prevalence, perceptions and predictors of complementary and alternative medicine use in selected communities in the Philippines

structured questionnaire that applies the RAND Short Form (SF) 36 and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire as measures of self-perceived health status. A higher prevalence was observed among the rural respondents (68.4%) as compared with their urban counterparts (51.5%). Users in both rural and urban areas perceived CAM as beneficial. Significant predictors of use included the type of community, an annual income of less than USD 10,500, more than 10 years of residence in the community, self-perceived health status in the energy/fatigue, emotional well-being and pain scales in the SF 36, presence of chronic illness, and consultations to traditional faith healer for health issues. Since only about 27% of the variability in the odds of using CAM can be explained by the model, further studies investigating other predictors of use are recommended.