Medical students` attitude about complementary and alternative medicine and its usage

Abstract

Thepopularityof complementaryandalternative medicine(CAM) andits usehaveincreasedoverthe previousdecades(Frasset a1.,2012). Theamountof avliable literature regarding the use of CAM in providingdifferenttypesofhealth careis increasing (Bazarganetal.,2008;Rosenberg etal.,2008). TheNationalCenterfor CAM (NCCAM, 200g) definesCAM as "a group of diversemedical and healthcaresystems, practices,andproductsthat are not generally considered paft of conventional medicine".The mostcommonlyinvestigatedCAM modalities among university students were biologically based modalities (which include herbals)andmind-bodymedicinemodalities(which includemeditation,spiritualities,hypnosisandyoga) (Lohet a1.,2013). Therehavebeena rising numberof studiesinvestigatingmedicalstudents'knowledgeandattitude regardingCAM in recentyears.Two studiesfrom SaudiArabia(Albadret a1.,2018;Alzahraniet al., 2016)that assessedknowledgeand attituderegarding CAM among medical students,found gap in knowledge,despitetheir positive attitude towards the topic.Anotherstudyconductedat two universities in the United Statesreportedthat medicalstudentsreceivedthe leastamountof educationabout CAM anddoubtedtheusefulnessof CAM the most, amongall healthprofessionsstudents(Baugnietet al.,2000). Dataon knowledgeand attitudeof medicalstudents from developingcountriesabout CAM are limited. ln Serbia,thereis still lack of data.Therefore, the aim of this study is to assessthe attitude towardsCAM andits useamongmedicalstudentsat the University of Pristina in KosovskaMitrovica. TheMedicalFacultyof the Universityof pristinain KosovskaMitrovica is oneof the five statemedical facultiesin Serbia.Currently,CAM is not partof the studycurriculum,sothe secondgoal of this studyis to assessstudents'attifudetoward its inclusioninto themedicalcurriculum. Materialsand methods This cross-sectional studyrecruitedmedicalstudentson 3'd,4th,5thand6,hyearof studyduringthe academic2019-2020year.Thesestudygroupswere chosenbecausetheyarein contactwith patientsthat are interestedin the effectivenessof this kind of treatment.The study was approvedby the Ethical Committeeof theFacultvof Medicine. * zorica. stanoj evic@med.pr.ac.rs22 Out of tolal 337 filled questionnaires, 45 were excludedfromthestudybecauseof incompletedata. The first part of the questionnaireassessedthe socio-demographicharacteristicsof students(age, gender,year of education).The secondpart of the questionnaireassessed theuseof CAM, andthethird partassessed theattitudetowardsCAM. Theattitude was assessedusing 7 questionswith dichotomous yesor no answers. Proceduresof CAM examined in this study were:acupuncture, massage, hypnosis,herbalmedicine, meditation,homeopathy,chiropractic,yoga, reflexology,prayerandself-helpgroups. Descriptivestatisticswereusedto analyzeinvestigatedparameters. Resultsanddiscussion Among the 292 studentswho completedthe questionnaire, T4 (25%),64 (22%),91 (31%), and 63 (22%) were in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth yearsof study,respectively. The percentageof,students that currently use CAM was 17.5o4, while33o/ohadneverusedCAM. Massagetherapy (39%), herbal products (24%), prayer(13.7%)and meditation(11.3%)weremost commonusedprocedures of CAM. The mostcommon reasonsfor using CAM amongmedical students were improvementof generalhealth, exam stressreliefandimprovementof concentration. The mostpopularsourcesof informationabout CAM wasinternet(74%). Interestingly,despitethe fact that most of the studentsbelievethatCAM couldbeusedto improve generalhealthand alleviateor eliminatethe symptomsof thedisease, over50o/oof studentsareunsure abouttheireffectiveness andsafety, Majority of the students (75%) felt that knowledgeaboutCAM could be beneficialto their medicalpracticeandshouldbeincludedin themedicalcurriculum. Conclusion Our results showedmedical studentspositive attitudeaboutCAM regardlessof their insufficient knowledgeof this topic. A high percentageof studentsagreedthat CAM canbe usefulin theprevention and treatmentof various medical conditions. Finally, the studentsshowedsignificantinterestfor including of CAM conceptin the medicalcurriculum. Rel'erences Albadr,8.O., Alrukban,M., Almajed,J., Alotaibi, K., Alangari, A., Bawazir, A., Aljasser,A., 2018. Attitude of Saudi medical studentstowardscomplementaryandalternativemedicine. J.FamilyCommunityMed.25, 120-126. 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