Complementary and Alternative Medicine Attitudes of Gynecologic Patients: Experience in a Tertiary Clinic

Objective:  To evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding complementary and alternative medicine methods of patients who were admitted to gynecology outpatient clinics.

Methods:  In the present survey, a questionnaire on complementary and alternative medicine practices was applied on 1,000 women (ages between 18 and 83 years old) who were admitted to the gynecology outpatient clinic of a tertiary maternity hospital. Demographic features and knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about these methods were inquired in face-to-face interviews.

Results:  While 80.7% of the total participants thought that complementary and alternative medicine was beneficial, only 37.5% of them had used these methods previously. The rate of prior knowledge on this subject was of 59.7% and the source of information was physicians for 8.5% of the patients. However, 72.4% of all participants wanted to obtain information on these methods and 93.7% wanted to be informed by physicians. In the decision tree model, having knowledge about complementary and alternative medicine was the most effective factor determining its use ( < 0.001). Phytotherapy was found to be the most used method, with 91.4%. The most preferred plant was onion (18.9%), and the most common reasons for herbal use were stress (15.4%) and fatigue (15.2%).

Conclusion:  More than one-third of the patients who applied to the gynecology outpatient clinics used one of the complementary and alternative medicine methods at least once. As gynecologists and obstetricians, we need to be more knowledgeable about these methods to provide correct guidance to our patients for accessing accurate and effective information.