Relationship between nonprescribed therapy use for illness prevention and health promotion and health-related quality of life.
OBJECTIVES
This study describes the nonprescribed therapy use (prayer, over-the-counter medications [OTC's], home remedies, vitamins, herbs and supplements, and exercise) for health promotion among rural elders. It also delineates the association of such therapy use with physical and mental health-related quality of life (HRQoL).


METHOD
The sample (N = 200) consisted of African American and White elders from south-central North Carolina. Participants completed baseline interviews and repeated measures of nonprescribed therapy use over a 6-month follow-up.


RESULTS
Prayer had the highest percentage (80.7%) of use for health promotion followed by OTC (54.3%); vitamins only (49.3%); herbs and supplements (40.5%); exercise (31.9%); and home remedies (5.2%). Exercise was significantly associated with better physical HRQoL (p < .05). However, elders who used nonprescribed therapies had poorer mental HRQoL than nonusers, adjusting for potential confounders.


CONCLUSION
This analysis suggests that use of some nonprescribed therapies for health promotion is associated with poorer mental HRQoL.
['Altizer|Kathryn P|KP|', 'Nguyen|Ha T|HT|', 'Neiberg|Rebecca H|RH|', 'Quandt|Sara A|SA|', 'Grzywacz|Joseph G|JG|', 'Lang|Wei|W|', 'Bell|Ronny A|RA|', 'Arcury|Thomas A|TA|']
D001741:African Americans D000368:Aged D001294:Attitude to Health D019587:Dietary Supplements D004194:Disease D005260:Female D015577:Geriatric Assessment D006293:Health Promotion D006304:Health Status D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008519:Medicine, Traditional D008603:Mental Health D004366:Nonprescription Drugs D009657:North Carolina D011788:Quality of Life D012067:Religion D012107:Research Design D012648:Self Care D013022:South Carolina D014815:Vitamins D044465:Whites
nonprescribed therapy use health-related quality of life (HRQoL)