Prevalence of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use among General Population in South India - A Cross-Sectional Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 2400-2405
Author(s):  
Yamuna Devi M. S. ◽  
Shanmugapriya S ◽  
Kaavya S
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
Alternative Medicine ◽  
Complementary And Alternative Medicine ◽  
South India ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Care Facility ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Complementary And Alternative

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) refers to a wide range of clinical therapies outside of conventional medicine used along with the physician prescribed drugs to complement the treatment. It is widely accepted and used across the globe. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of use of CAM among the general population and to determine the acceptability, extent and pattern of CAM use. This cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was done among the general population in South India. 300 participants aged >18 years were included in the study irrespective of their genders. An interviewer-administered questionnaire with 20 questions was used to assess CAM usage. The statistical analysis was done by Chi-square test using SPSS version 25. The mean age was 50.39 (± 15.67) years. CAM usage was significantly influenced by age, educational qualification, occupation, geographical area and accessibility to a health care facility. The prevalence of CAM usage was found to be 62%. Homeopathy/Herbal medicine (34%) was the most commonly used CAM. About 35% had used CAM without the knowledge of their treating physician. More than 60% believe that CAM is safe with fewer side effects and around half of them had symptomatic relief following CAM usage. Our study results indicate the need for more studies testing various CAM modalities exploring their uses, adverse effects & interactions with other drugs, which in turn can guide the physicians in their treatment. 

scholarly journals Alternative Medicine’ Complaints Lodged to the Tehran Forensic Medicine Organization From 2011 to 2017

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ali Emam Hadi ◽  
Baharak Sabet Divshaly ◽  
Farahnaz Azimy ◽  
Babak Sabet Divshaly
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Alternative Medicine ◽  
Complementary And Alternative Medicine ◽  
Forensic Medicine ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Exclusion Criterion ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Complementary And Alternative

Background: Complementary and alternative medicine is a non-conventional therapy and includes a wide range of medical treatments in different countries. This study was done to evaluate alternative medicine complaints lodged to the Tehran Forensic Medicine Organization from 2011-2017.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all documented complaints of complementary medicine lodged to the Tehran Forensic Medicine Organization from 2011-2017 were reviewed and assessed with retrospective follow-up. The inclusion criterion was complaints from complementary and alternative medicine, and the exclusion criterion was incomplete data. The study data included patients’ demographic data, the therapist, the specialty of the therapist, type of disease, treatment method, adverse effects, the initial and final decision by the commission, and the amount of medical error. This information was extracted from the existing documents and recoded in the checklists.Results: Medical errors were found in 53.4% of the complaints examined. The most common cause of complaint (63%) was the adverse effects, of which the most common ones were phytotherapy (45.2%) and cupping (Hijama) (20.5%). The error was significantly different between physician and non-physician healers (P=0.001).Conclusion: Based on this study, among the alternative medicine complaints lodged to the Tehran Forensic Medicine Organization from 2011-2017, the adverse effects were the main problem of complementary therapies confirmed in more than half of the complaints.

scholarly journals Mothers’ Attitudes toward the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Children with Cancer

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Atena Dadgari ◽  
Imane Bagheri ◽  
Naiire Salmani ◽  
Mahnaz Mirakhor
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Alternative Medicine ◽  
Complementary And Alternative Medicine ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Intraclass Correlation ◽  
Children With Cancer ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Face ◽  
Complementary And Alternative

Background: Children who have cancer suffer from a wide range of symptoms and side-effects of disease and treatment, and such conditions have harmful effects on the quality of life of a child and family. So, the families of such children turn to complementary and alternative medicine treatments for children with cancer. Objectives: Therefore, this study aimed at determining the mothers’ attitudes toward the use of complementary and alternative medicine in children with cancer. Methods: This cross-sectional research was conducted from January 2018 to January 2019 in the oncology section of Yazd Shahid Sadooghi Hospital in a nonrandom and convenience sampling method on 150 mothers of children with cancer. The instruments of data collection include demographic information questionnaires and a 6-part questionnaire to evaluate mothers’ performance. To investigate the face and content validity of the questionnaire, the opinions of 10 experts were considered, and to investigate the reliability of the questionnaire, the test-retest method was used, and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was reportedly 0.80. After completing the questionnaires, the collected data were analyzed, using SPSS 23 by utilizing descriptive statistics, including mean, standard deviation (SD), frequency, and percent. Results: Overall, 83.34% of mothers mentioned praying as a way of complementary and alternative medicine, 67.34% used complementary and alternative medicine to increase child recovery chance, 74% reported general child recovery, 20% reported the occurrence of side-effects following the use of complementary and alternative medicine, 67.33% introduced their friends as their information source, 33.6% avoided informing the physician regarding the use of complementary and alternative medicine, and 76% maintained that due to the objection of physicians, they avoided informing him/her. Conclusions: The use of complementary and alternative medicine is common among mothers but due to the occurrence of side-effects, using invalid information sources and hiding it from a physician, the oncologists must provide a suitable opportunity for asking and answering to guide mothers for correct performance in the use of complementary and alternative medicine.

scholarly journals Awareness about complementary and alternative medicine among attendees of urban and rural health training centres of a medical college in North Karnataka

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 3924
Author(s):  
Chandan N. ◽  
Kiran Patil
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Medicine ◽  
Complementary And Alternative Medicine ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Orthodox Medicine ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Medical College ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Chi Square Test ◽  
Complementary And Alternative

Background: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) includes a wide range of practices that do not fit within the dominant biomedical model of health care and are not commonly provided within orthodox medicine settings. People might be attracted to and use CAM because they hold beliefs that are congruent with CAM. But safety and efficacy of these systems are not well established. So this study was done to assess awareness among patients attending UHTC and RHTC about CAM.Methods: Cross sectional study was done in UHTC and RHTC of SDMCMSH, Dharwad, India. Data was collected by using pre designed interview schedule from 200 patients. Data was entered in Microsoft excel 2013 and analysed using IBM SPSS v20. Descriptive statistics and chi square test were applied. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: 100 patients each from UHTC and RHTC were included in the study. 93% of UHTC and 98% of RHTC patients were aware about CAM. 74% in UHTC and 60% in RHTC were aware of advertisements about CAM. 96% of UHTC and 100% of RHTC patients said CAMs have no side effects. 45% from UHTC and 14% from RHTC preferred CAM. 43% from UHTC and 42% from RHTC patients had used CAM.Conclusions: The awareness about CAM in our study is high, 93% among urban and 98% among rural study participants. Ayurveda was the most commonly used AMT.

scholarly journals Knowledge, Use and Recommendation of Iraqi Pharmacist Toward Complementary and Alternative Medicine

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-93
Author(s):  
Samer I. Mohammed ◽  
Mohamed I. Al- Shadedi ◽  
Ali A. Kasim
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
General Population ◽  
Alternative Medicine ◽  
Complementary And Alternative Medicine ◽  
Care Provider ◽  
Knowledge Use ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Pilot Survey ◽  
The Past ◽  
Complementary And Alternative

Over the past few decades, the global usage and applications of different kinds of complementary and alternative medicine are greatly exaggerated among the general population, this requires improving the knowledge of all health care provider including pharmacists toward proper and safe use of different complementary and alternative medicine modalities. The current study aims to assess the Iraqi pharmacists' knowledge, use, and recommendation toward complementary and alternative medicine A cross-sectional pilot survey was done on a convenient sample of Iraqi pharmacists. Data were collected using a pretested 

scholarly journals Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use in Breast Cancer Patients at a Medical Center in Taiwan: A Cross-Sectional Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 153473542098391
Author(s):  
Chieh-Ying Chin ◽  
Yung-Hsiang Chen ◽  
Shin-Chung Wu ◽  
Chien-Ting Liu ◽  
Yun-Fang Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Alternative Medicine ◽  
Complementary And Alternative Medicine ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Medical Center ◽  
Cancer Center ◽  
Breast Cancer Patients ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Cam Use ◽  
Complementary And Alternative

Background Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is becoming more common in medical practice, but little is known about the concurrent use of CAM and conventional treatment. Therefore, the aim was to investigate the types of CAM used and their prevalence in a regional patient cohort with breast cancer (BC). Methods BC patients were interviewed with a structured questionnaire survey on the use of CAM in southern Taiwan at an Integrative Breast Cancer Center (IBCC). The National Centre for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) classification was used to group responses. Over a period of 8 months, all patients receiving treatment for cancer at the IBCC were approached. Results A total of 106 BC patients completed the survey (response rate: 79.7%). The prevalence of CAM use was 82.4%. Patients who were employed, were receiving radiotherapy and hormone therapy, and had cancer for a longer duration were more likely to use CAM ( P < .05). Multivariate analysis identified employment as an independent predictor of CAM use (OR = 6.92; 95% CI = 1.33-36.15). Dietary supplementation (n = 69, 82.1%) was the type of CAM most frequently used, followed by exercise (n = 48, 57.1%) and traditional Chinese medicine (n = 29, 34.5%). The main reason for using CAM was to ameliorate the side effects of conventional therapies. Almost half (46.4%) of these CAM users did not disclose that they were using it in medical consultations with their physicians. Most chose to use CAM due to recommendations from family and friends. Conclusion A large portion of BC patients at the IBCC undergoing anti-cancer treatment courses used CAM, but less than half discussed it with their physicians. Given the high prevalence of CAM, it would be justifiable to direct further resources toward this service so that cancer patients can benefit from a holistic approach to their treatment.

scholarly journals Safety and Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Norway During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic Using an Adapted Version of the I-CAM-Q: A Cross-Sectional Survey

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnete Egilsdatter Kristoffersen ◽  
Miek C. Jong ◽  
Johanna Hök Nordberg ◽  
Esther T. van der Werf ◽  
Trine Stub
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Alternative Medicine ◽  
Complementary And Alternative Medicine ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Fisher Exact Test ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Exact Test ◽  
Complementary And Alternative

Abstract BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic lockdown has had a profound impact on physical and mental well-being throughout the world. Previous studies have revealed that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is frequently used for, and can be potential beneficial for strengthening physical mental resilience. The aim of this study was therefore to determine the prevalence, associations and reasons for use of CAM during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic among a representative sample of the Norwegian population, and determine possible effects and adverse effects of the treatments. MethodsComputer assisted telephone interviews using a COVID-adapted I-CAM-Q questionnaire were conducted with 1008 randomly selected Norwegians aged 16 and above using multistage sampling during April and May 2020 applying age and sex quotas for each area. Descriptive statistics were carried out using Pearson’s Chi-square test, Fisher exact test, and Independent samples T-tests to identify group differences. ResultsThe study revealed that two thirds of the respondents (67%) had used CAM within the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular CAM modalities that did not involve a provider. Most used were natural remedies and dietary supplement (57%, mainly vitamins and minerals), but self-help practices like yoga and meditation were also widely used (24%). Women used CAM modalities significantly more than men (77% vs. 58%). Most of the respondents found the modalities they used beneficial, and 5% reported adverse effects of the treatments.ConclusionsThe first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has not profoundly changed the overall need of Norwegian citizens to seek care outside the conventional healthcare system, but rather caused a shift in the type of CAM modalities used. The risk profile of these modalities was generally low as only 5 % of the respondents reported adverse effects. Further studies are needed to confirm the change from provider based to self-administered CAM use.

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