Primary Supervisor: A/Prof Sokcheon Pak
Location: All campuses/Online
Keywords: Complementary medicine; Questionnaire; Validity; Reliability
Project availability: Available currently
Synopsis:
Complementary medicine (CM) refers to a broad range of health practices and therapies that are not part of conventional medicine and are not fully integrated into the dominant healthcare system. The use of CM is high in Australia. Evidence suggests that CM usage can influence a patient’s response to subjective symptoms such as anxiety, pain, and fatigue, as well as outcomes related to emotional and physical functioning and quality of life during illness.
Currently, the most widely used questionnaire for measuring CM use is the International Complementary and Alternative Medicine Questionnaire (I-CAM-Q), which was developed by an international workgroup of CM researchers and practitioners in 2006. A key strength of I-CAM-Q is its suitability for cross-cultural adaptations. However, I-CAM-Q is primarily designed for population-based cross-sectional studies and does not provide a scale or scoring mechanism to quantify individual CAM usage. Additionally, I-CAM-Q has been criticised as unsuitable for non-CM users, as they tend to leave the questionnaire blank or generate high rates of missing data.
To complement I-CAM-Q, the Complementary Medicine Utilisation Scales (CMUS) was developed as a self-administered instrument that provides measurable scales for use in clinical practice and research to assess and quantify CM use and beliefs. CMUS consists of four multi-item scales that measure a respondent’s level of CM utilisation and beliefs: Service (SS), Product (PS), Self-Help (HS), and Belief (BS). These scales assess the frequency of CM use over the past three months, allowing CMUS to track changes in CM usage and beliefs on a quarterly basis. All items use a Likert scale (4-points or 7-points) to gauge the respondent’s level of agreement. A scoring procedure (CMUS Scoring Manual Version 1.0) converts item scores into standardised scale scores, ranging from 0 to 25 for each scale. A higher scale score indicates a greater level of CM utilisation or belief. A global score (GS) for CM utilisation is derived by summing the four scale scores: GS = SS + PS + HS + BS, with a possible range of 0 to 100. Like I-CAM-Q, CMUS is designed with openness for cross-cultural adaptation. Items can be modified or replaced with more culturally relevant therapies or modalities. Optional items allow respondents to specify additional CM therapies or products not covered by the standard items, without affecting the scoring of the scales.
The research question is as follows: Is CMUS a valid and reliable tool for measuring CM use and beliefs? Establishing the validity and reliability of a research instrument is essential for its scientific application. Validity refers to the accuracy of the instrument in measuring what it is intended to measure, whereas reliability indicates the consistency of measurement across repeated trials.
Interested? Start the conversation here by contacting A/Prof Sokcheon Pak