A study on traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) usage among malaysian cancer patients
Journal Title: International Journal of Allied Medical Sciences and Clinical Research - Year 2014, Vol 2, Issue 3
Abstract
Background Usage of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) has gained popularity over the past few years. However, very little is known about TCAM utilization among Malaysian cancer patients. Aim This study aims to identify the determinants of TCAM usage. Objectives This study intends to determine the relationship between the cancer patients’ demographic factors, patient’s satisfaction with conventional treatment, knowledge on TCAM and healthcare professional’s influence on TCAM usage. Patient’s perceptions towards TCAM will also be determined. Methodology Simple random and convenient sampling method was used to recruit 354 patients from Hospital Kuala Lumpur between February to April 2013. All patients were directly interviewed with a structured questionnaire. Results In this study, 172 respondents were TCAM users. There were no significant differences between demographic background of respondents in the use of TCAM using ANOVA. Minimal correlation was found between patient’s satisfaction with the conventional treatment and usage of TCAM (r = 0.091). Poor correlation was found between healthcare professional’s influence and TCAM usage (r = -0.213) indicating an increase in healthcare professional’s influence will cause TCAM usage by cancer patients to decrease. Patient’s TCAM knowledge correlated negatively with the TCAM usage (r = -0.555) indicated that cancer patients are less likely to use TCAM when they have more TCAM knowledge. Conclusion Healthcare professionals should be fully equipped with the necessary TCAM knowledge while maintaining patient’s satisfaction with the conventional treatment. They should also intervene patients’ TCAM usage where a potential drug interaction or a harmful adverse event can occur.
Authors and Affiliations
Nagarajan Srinivasan
Keywords
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