The Use of Herbal Remedies among Mothers of Young Children Living in the Central Appalachian Region
Table 1
Factor loadings of the items for the belief’s in efficacy and safety of herbal remedies scale and information seeking channels scale.
Items
Factor loading
Cronbach alpha
Beliefs about the safety and efficacy of herbal remedies
Please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements:
0.87
(1) Herbal remedies are not harmful.
0.67
(2) Herbal remedies are safe for use in children.
0.85
(3) Herbal remedies are effective.
0.79
(4) Herbal remedies have fewer side effects than prescription medication.
0.88
(5) Herbal remedies help body’s immune system.
0.88
Information seeking channels about the remedies
Please rate how often have you heard about herbal remedies from the following sources:
0.63
(1) Printed material (Newspaper, book, or magazine).
0.70
(2) Television.
0.44
(3) Internet.
0.79
(4) Family.
0.74
(5) Friends or coworkers.
0.70
(6) Health care provider (physician, pharmacist, nurse).
0.24
Note. Principle Component Analysis (PCA) for the belief scale revealed that all of our five items were highly loading on one factor; this factor accounts for 68.30% of the variance. PCA for information seeking channels scale revealed that five items (printed material, television, Internet, family, friends, and coworkers) were highly loading in one factor (>0.4); this factor accounts for 47.01% of the variance.
