Medical and health science Students' knowledge, attitude, and practice towards complementary and alternative medicine in University of Gondar

Abstract

BackgroundComplementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a well-known medical science that uses a variety of therapeutic strategies and approaches to effectively prevent and treat a wide range of human ailments. Determining graduating medical and health science students' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding CAM can help in the integration of these systems into the health care system at large in a healthy manner. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the level of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) of CAM among the University of Gondar (UOG) graduating medical and health science students. MethodsAn institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted from June 13 to July 26, 2021, at the University of Gondar, college of medicine and health science, Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia. Descriptive statistics were calculated for baseline characteristics. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to identify the association between dependent and independent variables. ResultsThe study included 302 students, making the response rate 98.05%. The mean age of the participants was 23.5 ± 1.4 years. About 80(26.5%) of respondents appeared to have good knowledge. Knowledge about CAM was significantly greater among pharmacy students compared to medical students at 4.852(95% CI-1.831, 12.859). About 86% of students had a positive attitude toward CAM. This study revealed that females had 0.042 times less likely positive attitude towards CAM than male students (95%CI-0.008, 0.210). The most common CAM modality amongst all was nutritional therapy, at 35.8%. Regarding to students' overall practice, 101(33.5%) of students had good practice. pharmacy students had 2.527 times more good practice than medical students (95% CI-1.001, 6.379). Whereas, nursing students were 0.375 times less likely to have good practice than medical students (95% CI-0.141, 0.999). ConclusionAs the finding of this study indicates, despite students' positive attitudes towards CAM, their knowledge and practice are poor.