Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use among Turkish Cancer Patients and the Influencing Factors

Abstract

Background: The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies especially among cancer patients was quite frequent because of many reasons. Objective: The study was conducted in order to determine the use of CAM therapies among Turkish cancer patients and also determine the influencing factors. Methodology: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was performed with total 280 patients who received inpatient and outpatient treatment in an oncology clinic of a university hospital. Data were collected by using the Patient Characteristics Form and Complementary and Alternative Medicine Scale. p<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: This study demonstrated that the patients who were women, and receiving outpatient care used energy approaches more often; patients who were single, and had metastatic disease used CAM approaches more often than the others. No significant difference was found between CAM use and education, occupation, performance score, diagnosis, and time of diagnosis. It was determined that 79.3% of the patients did not ask their physician about the use of CAM, and the knowledge about CAM use was taken from the newspaper/ television (36.1%), and friends (36.1%). Most frequent used approaches were nutritional (taking honey, 67.1%), cognitive behavioral (praying always, 41.1%), and biologic (drinking linden tea, 43.6%). The most common reason of CAM use was found as to strengthen the immune system (43.9%). Conclusion: The use of CAM therapies among Turkish cancer patients was quite frequent. Both health professionals and patients should be informed about the proper use of these approaches.