Clinical Diabetes/Therapeutics

2320-PO Patterns of Complementary Therapy Use Among Rural Older Adults With Diabetes RONNY BELL, SARA QUANDT, JOSEPH GRZYWACZ, REBECCA NEIBERG, WEI LANG, THOMAS ARCURY, Winston-Salem, NC Previous studies on complementary therapy (CT) use among adults with diabetes have been limited by crude measures of current use across broad CT categories, and by a lack of specifi city of CT use for treating diabetes. Data for the current analysis are drawn from a study of CT use among rural African American and white older (age >65) adults in southeastern North Carolina. Among the 200 study participants, 71 (35.6%) reported having been told by a doctor that they have diabetes. Baseline and repeated threeday assessments (n=52) of use of six categories of CTs for treating diabetes symptoms were conducted monthly by trained interviewers over a six-month period. At baseline, the most commonly used CTs included prayer (88.7%), food or beverages (50.7%), herbs (11.3%) and home remedies (9.9%). Overthe-counter therapies and CT professionals were used by less than 1% of participants. In repeated measures representing 1131 interviews, prayer was used on 57.2% of days, followed by food or beverages (12.7%), herbs (3.4%) and home remedies (2.7%). Over half (56.3%) of those using prayer did so in at least fi ve of the six reporting periods, whereas use of other CTs was more sporadic. These data show, with the exception of prayer and food and beverages, fairly limited use of CTs for diabetes treatment among rural older adults, and less consistent use for most CTs except prayer. Further research is needed to more fully understand the motivations and patterns of CT use in this population.