Measuring differential beliefs in complementary therapy research: An exploration of the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Beliefs Inventory (CAMBI)

Abstract

The Complementary and Alternative Medicine Beliefs Inventory (CAMBI) was developed to provide a comprehensive measure of beliefs believed to differentiate complementary therapy (CT) users from nonusers. The initial evaluation of the CAMBI was based on a relatively homogeneous sample of CT users, which raises questions about its applicability in more generalized samples. This study uses data from a community-based sample of older adults (N=200) to evaluate the utility of the CAMBI in more diverse samples. Results indicated substantial variation in responses to items with each of a-priori belief domains (i.e., perceived value of natural treatments, preference for participation in treatments, and orientation toward holistic health) and modest inter-correlation among items within each belief domain. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated the a-priori measurement structure provided a poor fit to obtained data. Post-hoc analyses indicated that African Americans and those with less education had less consistent responses to items within each belief domain. Revision and additional development of the CAMBI is needed to enable its use in more diverse research samples.

Race, Pain, and Beliefs Associated with Interest in Complementary and Alternative Medicine among Inner City Veterans

“…A higher score on the CAMBI reflects a greater belief in alternative medicine. As has been done previously, a five‐point Likert scale was used instead of the original seven‐point Likert scale to maintain consistency with the other scales in the survey . Four items were negatively phrased and reverse‐scored.…”

Counseling students’ attitudes toward complementary and alternative medicine integration in counseling practice

“…High scores on the CAMBI indicated that the individual had strong beliefs about CAM use. CAMBI has been shown to have satisfactory reliability (Berger & Johnson, 2017;Grzywacz et al, 2012). Cronbach's alpha for the CAMBI was 0.81, and for natural treatments, preference for participation in health treatments, and orientation toward holistic health subscales were 0.75, 0.68, and 0.73, respectively.…”

“…The version of the CAMBI used in the original study was modified for use in this study. Similar with Grzywacz et al (2012), the word "treatments" in original items was changed to "health-related treatments" and "patients" was changed to "clients" as clarification for participants to consider mental health and substance use treatments when responding to CAMBI items. Response categories range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).…”

“…Another limitation is the use of the CAMBI instrument for this study. Grzywacz et al (2012) indicated "the complementary and alternative behavior inventory (CAMBI) is not well suited for measuring health and healing in a diverse community sample." Though the current sample was limited in its diversity (33%), there were significant differences in beliefs between ethnic groups and a need for a more diverse sample.…”

US Veterans Use Vitamins and Supplements as Substitutes for Prescription Medication

“…As has been done previously, a 5-point Likert scale was used instead of the original 7-point Likert scale to maintain consistency with the other scales in the survey. 13 Four items were negatively phrased and reversescored. The minimum score for the scale was 17 and the maximum was 85.…”