An Evaluation of Medical School Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior Regarding Traditional and Complementary Medicine

Abstract

Objective: The use of traditional and complementary medicine (TCM) methods in our country in relation to our cultural background increases day by day. For this reason, it is important to raise awareness among medical faculty students, who are future physicians, regarding TCM. Our goal in this study is to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of Sivas Cumhuriyet University Faculty of Medicine (SCUFM) students regarding TCM practices. Method: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out with those who accepted to participate in the study among the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students studying at SCUFM between September 2020 and December 2020. 320 students who volunteered to participate in the study filled out the research questionnaire online. Results: When the knowledge level of the medical school students participating in our study regarding TCM methods was examined, the most widely known methods were found to be hypnosis treatment (93.4%), acupuncture (93.2%), and cupping (80%), respectively. While 19.1% of the students had a TCM procedure before, the most used methods were cupping (83.6%) and leech (16.4%) therapy. While 95.6% of medical students thought that patients should consult their physicians before having any TCM method applied, only 11.6% thought that TCM methods had only a placebo effect. The 79.1% of the students, think that there should be courses on TCM methods in medical education. Conclusions: In our study, we found that medical school students' knowledge on TCM applications is insufficient and they want courses related to TCM to be included in medical education. We believe that by increasing the awareness and knowledge of medical students, who will be the health professionals of the future, about TCM in medical education, these practices can be used more beneficially and in a way that is based on evidence.