The Knowledge Level and Opinions of Medical Faculty Students About Traditional and Complementary Medicine

Abstract

Objective: Traditional and Complementary Medicine is a popular topic in healthcare community. It has become an expectation of the health professionals to learn about Traditional and Complementary Medicine and form an opinion. In this study, the knowledge levels and opinions of medical students regarding Traditional and Complementary Medicine were investigated.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study and was applied to students of Giresun University Faculty of Medicine between April and May 2019. Statistical analyzes were evaluated using the SPSS 20.0 package program.

Results: A total of 140 students were included in the study and female students were the majority (59.7%). Among the students, the Traditional and Complementary Medicine method which had the highest level of awareness was the cupping therapy (82.1%). Traditional and Complementary Medicine applications were mostly learned from the media (47.1%). The rate of those who wanted to perform applications related to complementary medicine was 24.3%. 47.9% of the students had positive views on Traditional and Complementary Medicine. The rate of those who heard Traditional and Complementary Medicine applications in the news and the media presented with a positive manner was 59.3%. The rate of those who thought that classical medicine and Traditional and Complementary Medicine can complement each other was 84.3%. It was seen that students whose family members tried Traditional and Complementary Medicine had more positive opinions towards them (p = 0,04).

Conclusion: Our results suggested that there was a high interest in complementary medicine among medical students. This interest warrants a curriculum in which classical medicine and Traditional and Complementary Medicine can be integrated.