Complementary alternative medicine practices used by religious professionals.

Religious professionals completed an online survey of their use of health related practices currently known as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). They indicated how often they engaged in these practices and how often they had used these practices when helping other people. The majority of religious professionals used at least one of the practices when alone and when helping other people. The most frequently used practices were meditation and deep breathing exercises used both when alone and when helping others. Female respondents were more likely to use these practices on their own and when helping others than were males, and older respondents were more likely to use multiple CAM practices than their younger counterparts. Other Faith/Humanists used the most CAM practices when alone and Jewish respondents used the fewest. In general, religious professionals used fewer practices when helping others than they used for themselves. Limitations of this study and suggestions for future studies for examining CAM practices among religious professionals are discussed.

Jankowski KR, Silton NR, Galek K, Montonye MG. J Health Care Chaplain. 2010 Jul;16(3-4):172-82. College of Pastoral Care, Healthcare Chaplaincy, New York, New York 10022, USA. kjankowski@healthcarechaplaincy.org