Attitudes and barriers towards using complementary and alternative medicine among university students in Jordan

Rakan Radi; Ula Isleem; Lujain Al Omari; Orhan Alimoğlu; Handan Ankarali; Hana Taha

doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2018.09.012

Attitudes and barriers towards using complementary and alternative medicine among university students in Jordan

Complement Ther Med. 2018 Dec:41:175-179. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2018.09.012. Epub 2018 Sep 24.

Authors

Rakan Radi¹, Ula Isleem², Lujain Al Omari², Orhan Alimoğlu³, Handan Ankarali⁴, Hana Taha⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. Electronic address: rakanradi95@gmail.com.
² Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
³ Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Istanbul, Turkey.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, Department of Biostatistics, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Istanbul, Turkey; Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, Düzce University, Düzce, Turkey.
⁵ Qatar University, College of Medicine, Population Medicine Department, Qatar.

PMID: 30477835
DOI: 10.1016/j.ctim.2018.09.012

Abstract

Background: Perceptions towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) are highly variable but are improving globally. However, studies conducted in Jordan about CAM are insufficient. This study aims to explore the attitudes and barriers towards using CAM among university students in Jordan.

Design and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the University of Jordan. A self-administered paper questionnaire was distributed to 475 students from the Faculties of Medicine, Pharmacy and Engineering of all academic years. Descriptive and multivariate data analysis was done using SPSS v.20.

Results: Seventy percent of all the participants have used at least one type of CAM. Younger female pharmacy students were most likely to use CAM. There were significant differences between students of different academic years regarding their opinions on CAM (p < 0.024). The percentage of medical students who believed that combining CAM with modern medicine would improve the overall treatment quality was significantly lower than the other two faculties (p < 0.001). Of the students who never used CAM, 39% did not do because they doubted its effectiveness.

Conclusion: There is a need for including CAM in the universities' curriculum as mandatory courses for health faculties and elective courses for other disciplines.

Keywords: CAM; Complementary and alternative medicine; Jordan; Perception; Students.

MeSH terms

Attitude of Health Personnel*
Complementary Therapies*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice*
Humans
Jordan / epidemiology
Male
Students, Medical / statistics & numerical data*
Universities