To Tell or Not to Tell: Shared Decision Making, CAM Use and Disclosure among Underserved Patients with Rheumatic Diseases

The purpose of this analysis was to assess the impact of perceived shared decision-making (SDM) on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use and disclosure in a sample of urban, underserved minority patients (n = 109) with rheumatic diseases. Nearly three quarters of the patients (71.6%) reported CAM use. Of these, 59% disclosed CAM use to their provider. Logistic regression models were created. In model 1 SDM significantly predicted CAM use; however, the overall model fit was not significant. In model 2, gender, ethnicity, and SDM predicted CAM disclosure with 73.2% correctly classified. Females were more likely and Hispanics were less likely to disclose CAM use. Those with higher SDM scores were more likely to disclose CAM use. SDM played a role in whether patients used CAM and disclosed CAM use to their providers. Improving SDM strategies may be especially important among patients who are least likely to disclose CAM use.