Table 1

Patient characteristics among CAM and non-CAM users with self-reported spine problems reported in MEPS 2002–2008.

Character	Level	Overall	NOT CAM USER	CAM USER	p-value for difference between groups
Unweighted sample, 2002–2008		12,036	7,730 (64.2%)	4,306 (35.8%)	--
Annual weighted sample		18.0 M	10.6 M (59.1%)	7.4 M (40.8%)
Age, mean		48.9 (48.5, 49.3)	50.9 (50.4, 51.5)	48.2 (47.4, 48.9)	0.001
Sex, %	Male	44.1 (42.9, 45.2)	44.4 (42.9, 46.0)	43.5 (41.7, 45.4)	<0.001
	Female	55.9 (54.8, 57.1)	55.6 (54.0, 57.1)	56.5 (54.6, 58.3)
Region	Northeast	18.8 (17.4, 20.4)	19.1 (17.5, 20.8)	18.4 (16.4, 20.6)	<0.001
	Midwest	26.2 (24.4, 28.1)	22.5 (20.6, 24.4)	31.7 (29.0, 34.4)
	South	32.3 (30.5, 34.2)	39.1 (37.0, 41.3)	22.6 (20.1, 25.2)
	West	22.6 (20.9, 24.5)	19.3 (17.7, 21.1)	27.4 (24.8, 30.1)
Race	White	86.6 (85.6, 87.5)	83.3 (82.0, 84.6)	91.4 (90.2, 92.4)	<0.001
	Black	8.2 (7.5, 8.9)	11.5 (10.5, 12.5)	3.4 (2.8, 4.2)
	Am. Indian	0.8 (0.5, 1.1)	0.9 (0.6, 1.4)	0.6 (0.3, 1.0)
	Asian	2.5 (2.2, 3.0)	2.4 (2.0, 3.0)	2.7 (2.1, 3.4)
	Native Ak	0.2 (0.1, 0.3)	0.2 (0.1, 0.4)	0.2 (0.1, 0.4)
	Multiple	1.7 (1.4, 2.1)	1.6 (1.3, 2.1)	1.8 (1.3, 2.4)
Ethnicity	Hispanic	7.2 (6.5, 8.0)	8.8 (8.0, 9.7)	4.8 (4.0, 5.7)	<0.001
	Not Hispanic	92.8 (92.1, 93.5)	91.2 (90.3, 92.0)	95.2 (94.3, 95.9)
Marital Status	Married	59.0 (57.7, 60.3)	57.3 (55.7, 58.9)	61.4 (59.3, 63.5)	<0.001
	Widowed	8.2 (7.5, 8.9)	9.7 (8.8, 10.7)	6.0 (5.0, 7.1)
	Divorced	14.1 (13.2, 15.1)	14.8 (13.6, 16.0)	13.2 (11.9, 14.7)
	Separated	2.2 (1.9, 2.6)	2.7 (2.3, 3.2)	1.5 (1.1, 2.0)
	Never	16.5 (15.6, 17.5)	15.5 (14.5, 16.7)	17.9 (16.3, 19.7)
Adapted Charlson Index	None	66.9 (65.6, 68.1)	63.3 (61.8, 64.7)	72.1 (70.0, 74.0)	<0.001
	1	21.5 (20.5, 22.5)	23.5 (22.3, 24.6)	18.5 (16.9, 20.3)
	2	11.7 (10.8, 12.6)	11.8 (12.2, 14.4)	9.4 (8.2, 10.8)
Health Insurance	Medicaid	8.2 (7.5, 8.9)	9.8 (8.9, 10.7)	5.8 (4.9, 6.9)	<0.001
	Medicare	9.0 (8.3, 9.7)	12.7 (11.7, 13.7)	3.7 (3.1, 4.5)
	Private only	75.1 (74.0, 76.3)	69.8 (68.3, 71.2)	82.9 (81.3, 84.4)
	Uninsured	7.7 (7.0, 8.5)	7.8 (7.0, 8.7)	7.6 (6.5, 8.9)
Family income	Poor	10.1 (9.4, 10.9)	13.7 (12.7, 14.7)	5.0 (4.3, 5.9)	<0.001
	Near Poor	3.8 (3.5, 4.2)	4.7 (4.2, 5.2)	2.6 (2.2, 3.2)
	Low	11.7 (10.9, 12.5)	13.7 (12.7, 14.8)	8.8 (7.9, 9.8)
	Middle	29.7 (28.6, 30.9)	29.1 (27.7, 30.5)	30.7 (28.8, 32.5)
	High	44.6 (43.0, 46.2)	38.9 (37.0, 40.8)	52.9 (50.8, 55.1)
Education *	High school or less	48.4 (46.8,50.0)	53.9 (52.2, 55.7)	40.3 (37.9, 42.7)	<0.001
	Any College	51.6 (50.0, 53.3)	46.1 (44.3, 47.8)	59.7 (57.3, 62.1)
Unemployed at any time during year	No	60.6 (59.3, 61.8)	52.8 (51.1, 54.4)	71.9 (70.1, 73.6)	<0.001
	Yes	39.4 (38.2, 40.7)	47.2 (45.6, 48.9)	28.1 (26.4, 29.9)
Back Pain diagnosis category	Sprain/strain	9.9 (9.2, 10.7)	10.6 (9.8, 11.5)	8.9 (7.6, 10.3)	<0.001
	Degeneration	60.9 (59.7, 62.1)	56.4 (54.8, 57.9)	67.5 (65.5, 69.3)
	Herniation w/o myelopathy	12.3 (11.4, 13.1)	14.7 (13.5, 15.9)	8.7 (7.7, 9.9)
	Herniation w/myelopathy	11.5 (10.7, 12.3)	12.6 (11.6, 13.6)	9.9 (8.7, 11.1)
	Stenosis	2.5 (2.1, 3.0)	3.2 (2.6, 3.8)	1.5 (1.1, 2.1)
	Spondylolisthesis	0.4 (0.2, 0.5)	0.4 (0.3, 0.7)	0.3 (0.1, 0.6)
	Scoliosis	2.7 (2.3, 3.2)	2.2 (1.8, 2.7)	3.4 (2.7, 4.2)

^*Total proportion is less that 100 because the answer was not ascertained for a small number of respondents