Open AccessThe Knowledge and Attitudes of The Non-Health Worker Citizens and Physicians About Traditional and Complementary Medicine: A Cross-Sectional Study
Author(s) -
Reyhan Tekin,
Süleyman Görpelioğlu,
Cenk Aypak,
Özlem Suvak,
Canan Emiroğlu
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
eurasian journal of family medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2147-3161
pISSN - 2147-3404
DOI - 10.33880/ejfm.2021100301
Subject(s) - turkish , alternative medicine , cross sectional study , complementary medicine , family medicine , health care , public health , medicine , set (abstract data type) , descriptive statistics , significant difference , medical education , traditional medicine , psychology , nursing , philosophy , linguistics , statistics , mathematics , pathology , computer science , economics , programming language , economic growth
Aim: Healthcare professionals will set an example to society with their behaviors about Traditional and Complementary Medicine usage. We aimed to investigate and compare the knowledge and attitudes of society and physicians about Traditional and Complementary Medicine to create an infrastructure for medical training.Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study "Turkish Version of Complementary, Alternative and Conventional Medicine Attitude Scale" was used for data collection.Results: A total of 392 physicians and 438 citizens participated in the study. Among all participants, 36.9% had used a Traditional and Complementary Medicine method before and the most used method was phytotherapy. There was a significant difference between groups in terms of the level of knowledge. Surprisingly no significant difference was found between physicians and the public in the "Dissatisfaction with Modern Medicine" subgroup.Conclusion: Although there were differences in the level of knowledge between the public and physicians, it was seen that the behavioral patterns were similar to each other. This situation suggests that physicians are also influenced by the society they live in, rather than scientific data, in their decisions about Traditional and Complementary Medicine. Being as a role model to the public, physicians are responsible for providing evidence-based answers to questions about Traditional and Complementary Medicine and should receive adequate training about methods.Keywords: complementary medicine, therapeutic use, evidence-based practice, knowledge, physicians