Abstract
Objective: Although its roots go back centuries, there is still a demand for traditional medicine practices and it is important to know the opinion of the society and healthcare professionals about the subject. Our study aims to determine the attitudes of healthcare professional and non-healthcare hospital staff about traditional medicine.Material-Method: A two-stage questionnaire, a demographic information section, and the Complementary, Alternative, and Conventional Medicine Attitudes Scale (CACMAS) was used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov Smirnov, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis and chi-square tests were used to analyze the data.Results: A total of 681 staff of nine public and private hospitals participated in the study. 65.4% (n=439) of the participants were healthcare professionals, 34.6% (n=232) were non-healthcare professionals. The mean scores of the healthcare professional respondents were 92.6 (±16.7), of the non-healthcare professional respondents were 126.1 (±11.7).Conclusion: In our study, it was found that healthcare professionals' attitudes towards traditional medicine practices were more negative than non-healthcare professionals. However, as according to the current legislation in many countries around the world, only physicians who receive standard training and other healthcare professionals under their supervision are authorized to perform traditional medicine practices in Turkey. As a result of our study, it was determined that the attitudes of healthcare professionals and other segments of the society should be observed about traditional medicine practices and that measures should be taken to bring together the supply and demand for traditional medicine on a legal basis.
Highlights
Traditional medicine emerged with human history and has been the only treatment alternative for humans for centuries
In our study, the attitudes of healthcare and nonhealthcare professional personnel working in nine different hospitals about traditional medicine practices were evaluated
The most negative attitude towards traditional medicine practices was determined in physicians
Summary
Traditional medicine emerged with human history and has been the only treatment alternative for humans for centuries. Legal regulations on traditional and complementary medicine practices date back to ancient times in some countries, while in some countries it is seen that they have been made in recent years[2]. What these legal regulations generally have in common is that traditional and complementary medicine is foreseen to be practiced by people who have been trained in the subject area. Turkey is one of the countries where legal regulations on traditional and complementary medicine practices have been made in recent years. According to the current legislation in Turkey, only health professionals who are certified by training are allowed to practice traditional and complementary medicine
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