Physician Assistant Student Attitudes Toward Complementary and Alternative Medicine Before and After Completion of a Core Curriculum

Abstract

Purpose: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) are controversial but popular modalities utilized by many Americans as an approach to health and disease. The PA program at Duke University includes a required curriculum in CAM, which presents traditional CAM modalities and stresses evidence-based integrative medicine (IM). We surveyed three cohorts of physician assistant (PA) students to determine their attitudes toward CAM therapy. Methods: We presented three student cohorts, with different levels of exposure to the CAM curriculum, with a survey about their attitudes toward CAM therapies. Responses from each cohort were tabulated and data were analyzed using the chi-square test for differences in proportions. When any cell frequency counts were less than 5, the Fisher exact test was used. Result: Responses to the survey were similar across all three cohorts; with no statistically significant differences in general attitudes toward CAM, with one exception. Similarly, except for divergence of opinion regarding the utility of chiropractic, students in all cohorts did not have significant differences of opinion about the utility of various CAM modalities, regardless of their level of training or exposure to a CAM curriculum. In attitudes about use of CAM by patients, and recommendation of CAM by practitioners, the majority of respondents agreed that CAM should be studied, recommended, and used by patients. Agreement about the utility of various CAM modalities did not vary substantially among cohorts. Conclusion: The survey showed little difference in attitudes and knowledge among the three groups, regardless of their level of training. This may reflect limited impact of the CAM curriculum, but may also reflect widespread media coverage of CAM, as well as student exposure to diverse health care settings prior to entering a PA program. Longitudinal studies of students' attitudes toward CAM, before and after exposure to a formal curriculum, may provide further data that is useful in CAM curriculum design.