Spirituality and religiosity, when used for the purpose of healing or to maintain health, are important components of mind-body alternative therapies, commonly used by minority populations, and particularly by Latinos.^2–7 Spirituality and religiosity are common with Latino cultural values and daily lives, serve as foundations of strength and coping with life′s struggles, as well as playing an important role as alternative therapy for health and well-being.^8,9

The majority of individuals appear to use alternative therapies or consult alternative practitioners in conjunction with, rather than instead of, more conventional medical treatment.¹⁰ Potential reasons for using alternative therapies include barriers to obtaining care, dissatisfaction with conventional treatment, having desire for control over health, philosophical congruence (i.e., holistic view of life), cultural beliefs, and factors related to the physician-patient relationship.^10–14 Also, patients′ use of spirituality healing is associated with barriers to obtaining care and dissatisfaction with the quality of care given by their medical provider.¹²

Key components of the physician–patient relationship such as information sharing and perceived quality of care may determine patients′ satisfaction with medical care,^15,16 and, at the same time, may determine use of alternative therapies or practitioners.^12,14 Furthermore, patients may feel frustrated during the medical encounter when they have a sense of being inadequately informed or excluded from information about health issues or disease knowledge. Patients may also feel confused during the medical encounter when they have difficulty understanding the language and terminology of health professionals.¹⁷ Both feeling frustrated or confused may create a sense of miscommunication during the medical encounter and weaken patients′ confidence in the prescribed treatment regimen and their ability to engage with it.^15,17

In the correlation analyses, diabetes was positively correlated with depression (_s=0.13, <.0001) and negatively correlated with self-rated health (_s=-0.22, <.0001). Depression was negatively correlated with better self-rated health (_s=-0.17, <.0001). Feeling confused and frustrated were highly intercorrelated (_s=0.49, <.0001), and confusion and frustration were moderately negatively correlated with perceived quality of medical care (_s=-0.14 and -0.20 respectively, both <.0001). Spiritual healing was moderately correlated with praying to be healed (_s=0.29, <.0001) and asking others to pray for healing (_s=0.32, <.0001), while praying to be healed and asking others to pray for healing were highly intercorrelated (_s=0.45, <.0001). Consulting a curandero was minimally associated with spiritual healing, praying to be healed and asking others to pray for healing (_s=0.05, 0.05 and 0.06, respectively; all <.01).

Table 2 shows the multivariable analyses for the primary correlates. Feeling confused after a medical encounter was significantly associated with consulting a curandero, praying to be healed, asking others to pray for healing, and considering spiritual healing as very important. Feeling frustrated after a medical encounter was only significantly associated with asking others to pray for healing. A better perception of quality of medical care was only significantly associated with lower odds of consulting a curandero.

There is limited information in the literature about curandero use or mind-body therapies and their association with communication in the medical encounter or perception about quality of medical care. With partial agreement to our findings, in two separate studies, curandero utilization or increased use of spiritual therapy was associated to dissatisfaction with medical care received at the last visit to a medical practitioner.^12,28 However, other studies showed no association between CAM use and satisfaction or communication during the medical encounter. In one study, CAM use was not associated with satisfaction with medical care received.²⁹ In another study, Hispanic patients′ CAM use was not associated with physician′s communication about depression.³⁰

Curandero utilization (5.8%) in our study appears slightly higher than reported in other population based studies exploring “ever” and “one-year” use but lower than that reported in convenience sample studies. Among Latinos in California, 3.2% reported ever having used a curandero.² Likewise, using the HHANES, Higginbotham and colleagues²⁹ reported that only 4.2% of Mexican American participants used a curandero (plus ‘sobadores’ [Traditional healers using massages to treat health problems], herbalists, spiritualists, and others) during a one-year period prior to the interview (1982–1984). In contrast, our curandero utilization rates are lower than reported in other studies using convenience samples of Latinos. For example, the utilization rates for ever used a curandero were 29% among Hispanics in an outpatient clinic in Colorado,³¹ and 26% among Mexican American women attending college.³² In another study, curanderos were used by 13% of Mexican American adults in the Texas Rio Grande Valley in the prior 12 months.³³

A higher percentage of Latinos in our study (60%) reported ever using prayer to be healed than reported by a general sample of US adults who pray for their own health (52%).³ Because we used a separate measure from praying for healing, i.e., importance of spirituality for healing, we could not compare our spirituality measure (69% very important vs. 31% somewhat/ slightly or not important) with other studies where both prayer and spirituality were combined and did not allow for reporting on the importance of spirituality alone. For example, in a study with a majority of non-Latino White elderly respondents, Cheung and colleagues³⁴ reported a utilization of both spiritual healing and prayer in only 30%. Keegan³³ reported that 67% Mexican Americans used prayer and 28% used spiritual healing in the past year. Although we did not include other CAM practitioners or therapies, our findings suggest that praying for healing and considering spiritual healing to be very important are common practices used by Latinos.

Data on religiosity or spirituality show differences across Latino subgroups or by nativity status. The large majority of Latinos in the US identify themselves as Catholic,³⁵ though foreign-born Latinos are more likely to report being Catholic than are US-born Latinos who are somewhat more likely to be Evangelical or born-again Christians. Mexican Americans, Dominicans, Colombians and other South Americans are somewhat more likely to report they are Catholics.^36,37 On the other hand, Latino seculars - no specific religious affiliation, atheist or agnostic - are predominantly male and younger compared with Latinos who identify as religious.³⁶ Foreign-born Latinos are more likely than their US-born counterparts to indicate that religion is important in their life. Cubans are less likely than Mexicans, Puerto Ricans or other Central Americans to indicate that religion is very important in their life. Similarly, outside the US, older persons in Havana have the highest frequency of no religious affiliation compared to older persons in other Latin American and Caribbean cities.³⁸ In our study, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Central & South Americans who were foreign-born had significantly higher percentages for considering spirituality healing as very important compared to their counterparts who were US-born.

The effect of nativity status on mind-body therapies or alternative practitioner use in our study is not uniform. Indeed, foreign-born Latinos were less likely to consult a curandero but more likely to ask others to pray for healing and were more likely to consider spiritual healing important compared with US-born Latinos (the most acculturated). Our findings agree²⁷ or disagree^2,21,29 from previous research that used different measures for acculturation, diverse groups of Latinos, or adjusted for other variables. Lee and colleagues²⁷ reported that Mexican Americans who spoke English not well/not at all were 68% less likely to use a curandero than those who spoke only English (the most acculturated), controlling for proportion of life spent in the US. In contrast, Latinos (Mexican Americans and other Latinos) who spoke English very well were six times more likely to have ever consulted a curandero than those who spoke only English (the most acculturated), controlling for religiosity and spirituality.² In another study, foreign-born respondents, specifically recent immigrants (<5 years in the United States), were less likely to use prayer for healing than US-born subjects.²¹ Finally, higher acculturation (measured by a 5-item scale) was significantly associated with higher percentage of overall CAM use (practitioner based -e.g., chiropractic-, and self-care based- e.g., meditation and prayer) but with lower percentage of traditional folk remedies use.²⁹ On the other hand, one study found no association between nativity status or language acculturation and curandero use.³¹

Our findings related to age and gender differences are important additions to the literature. Studies of CAM use among Latinos should cautiously consider overall CAM use because the use of some CAM modalities across age groups or gender may operate in opposite directions in this population. For example, in our study younger subjects were less likely to pray for healing, ask others to pray for healing and consider spiritual healing as very important, while other report, where overall CAM did not include prayer, showed that younger subjects were more likely to use overall CAM and most other CAM modalities than older subjects.³ Similarly, in our study women were less likely to consult a curandero but more likely to pray for healing, ask others to pray for healing and consider spiritual healing as very important compared to men. Neither gender nor age were associated with curandero use in four other studies.^2,27,34,39 In one study, older age predicted curandero use.³¹ In other studies, compared to men, women had higher use of mind-body therapies (i.e., prayer),^3,4,29 and traditional folk remedies (i.e., herbs).^25,29

This study has some limitations. Our cross-sectional analyses could not establish causal order between certain variables and the dependent variables. Also, the time reference used for the questions was different. The time for most dependent variables was “ever,” and the time for feelings toward the last medical encounter was not specifically defined, while the time for quality of medical care was within the last year. In addition, our questions for CAM modalities did not capture other types (i.e., herbal teas, dietary supplements, etc) that may be common among Latinos.⁴

This study may help physicians understand the use of prayer and spirituality among Latinos. Increased use of prayer and spirituality may be related to poorer quality of physician-patient communications measured by the frustration or confusion related to provision of health care information. This underscores the importance of culturally and linguistically effective communication with Latinos who like most patients, want to be informed about their health.¹⁵ Latino patients should have clear information that which takes into account their unique cultural circumstances.^8,11,40 On the other hand, use of spiritual healing practices that do not replace medical treatment should be viewed as attempts to increase potential benefit for health. Indeed, the Latino patient tends to use spirituality as a common coping behavior. Indeed, a greater spirituality (specifically increased religiosity) among Latinos has been linked to health benefits such as: having better self-reported health, having less fear of falling, having fewer deaths, coping with cancer, maintaining better cognition and moderating the deleterious effect of depression on cognitive performance.^38,41–46 Health care systems and clinicians that have supportive infrastructure and organizational systems for cultural competence facilitate patient care that is more cultural competent and may decrease patient frustration and confusion and improve the delivery of patient centered care.