Knowledge and Awareness of the Therapeutic Benefits and Precautions of Natural Honey Consumption among students

Abstract

Scientists encourage using honey as an alternative therapy for some infectious disease due to the development of bacterial resistance against antibiotics and decreased some of their effectiveness in clinical practice. Different types of honey have different actions and activities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of the therapeutic benefits and precautions of using natural honey among medical sciences students. This is a cross-sectional study that used through a survey questioner which was created using Google form tool and was distributed to undergraduate medicine (MD) and pharmacy students (B. Pharm) in Muscat, Oman. The results of this study found that Omani honey was mostly preferred by 53.4% of the participants. Although honey rich in health benefits it was concluded that 58.2% of participants never advised by a doctor to use honey for a certain medical condition. It was found that 71.9% not aware about anti-inflammatory effects of honey to reduce eye inflammation. While more than 70% know about efficiently of cosmetics uses of honey. Moreover, almost half of the participants (49%) seem to be unaware of the suitable age to start taking honey which may be fatal to infants. Therefore, parents should be warned not to give honey to their new-born to prevent them from the botulism toxicity. The awareness about the benefits of honey is accepted in some consideration while insufficient in the awareness precautions of using honey with children under the age of 12 months which may be fatal.