Physicians' attitudes toward complementary and alternative medicine and their knowledge of specific therapies: 8-Year follow-up at an academic medical center
Introduction
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a growing component of most health care systems, driven largely by patient interest in both health promotion and symptom management. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine's definition of CAM is “a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine” [1]. Because CAM therapies can offer both risks and benefits, it is imperative that physicians of all specialties have a basic knowledge of these therapies so they are able to advise and guide their patients. In preparation for establishment of a CAM Program at our institution [2], in 2004, our group developed a survey to assess physicians' attitudes toward CAM and their knowledge of specific CAM therapies, the results of which have been published previously [3]. During the 8 years since that survey, CAM has grown exponentially, both at our institution and across the United States, which suggests that CAM will be a part of health care for much of the US population for the foreseeable future. We therefore chose to re-evaluate the current attitudes and knowledge base of practicing physicians at our academic center by using the same survey. Our goals were to assess changes in physician attitudes and to identify any persisting or novel education gaps. We believe that the results of this reassessment will be helpful in guiding leadership for providing practicing physicians with updated and targeted resources.
Section snippets
Physician survey
This study was approved by our institutional review board. A link to an anonymous, web-based survey was e-mailed to practicing staff internists in the Department of Medicine (general internists and subspecialists in cardiology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, endocrinology, nephrology, hematology, allergy, rheumatology, infectious diseases, hypertension, preventive and occupational care medicine, and critical care) at our institution, a large academic medical center, in October 2012. One e-mail
Physician respondents
Of 645 physicians who were invited by e-mail to participate in the web-based survey, 188 (29%; 95% CI, 26%–33%) responded, compared with 233 (35%; 95% CI, 32%–39%) responders of 660 physicians in our 2004 survey (P = .02). Demographics of the participants of the 2 surveys are shown in Table 1. In both surveys, most respondents were men. Compared with the participants of the 2004 survey, respondents in the 2012 survey were older—72% (95% CI, 65%–78%) were aged 46 years or older in the 2012
Discussion
The use of CAM therapies for preventive and therapeutic measures by various populations has been well documented in the literature [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]. It is therefore of great importance that physicians have knowledge about CAM to advise their patients about possible benefits and possible risks. Several national and international surveys have reported on physicians' practices and beliefs regarding CAM. However, widely varying definitions of CAM have been used. To our knowledge,
Conflict of interest statement
The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
Acknowledgment
No role of study sponsor to report.
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