Perceived Behavioral Control as a Key to Integrative Medicine

The purpose of the present study was to identify the factors that are the strongest predictors of intentions and use of integrative medicine approaches in clinical practice. Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior was used to guide our examination of these questions. Health care professionals exposed to a Veterans Health Administration program (N = 288) who completed survey instruments prior to and immediately after the program and 3 months later were the participants for this study. Findings suggest that the theory of planned behavior performs reasonably well in explaining our data showing the integration of integrative medicine approaches into clinical practice. We found that self-efficacy to use integrative health approaches and perceived preparedness to discuss nonpharmaceutical approaches with patients were the strongest predictors of intentions to use integrative health approaches and self-reported change in clinical practice. The implications of these findings are discussed.