Evaluation of knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of family physicians about traditional and complementary medicine methods

INTRODUCTION and AIM: In this study, which was planned as a descriptive cross-sectional epidemiological research type, it was aimed to investigate the frequency of use of Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM) and their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors on this subject. MATERIALS and METHODS: Between 02.03.2021 and 01.04.2021, the survey consisting of 14 sections, prepared through the Surveymonkey survey preparation and application site, was conducted by transmitting and applying the snowball technique over the social communication groups of family physicians. The obtained data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. RESULTS: Totally 209 family physicians participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 32.99 (ss=7.27; min=24, max=55) and 73.7% of them were female. The practice in which family physicians have the highest level of knowledge was determined as the cup therapy. It was observed that the practice most believed to be clinically beneficial was acupuncture (n=172, 82.3%), but family physicians used more phytotherapy (n=43, 20.6%) for their own health. It is thought among family physicians that T&CM therapy can be used in arthritis and depression diseases [n (%, respectively); 122 (58.4), 119 (56.9)]. It is thought that the biggest obstacle to the spread of T&CM therapy is the lack of evidence in the therapies (n=191, 91.4%). Most of the family physicians think that T&CM therapies should be used together with classical modern medicine (n=148, 70.8%), and the experts in the field are mostly preferred as the source of information (n=102, 48.8%). CONCLUSION: In our study, which was conducted to determine the views and attitudes of family physicians towards T&CM therapies, the frequency of use, level of knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of family physicians about T&CM therapies were determined in accordance with previous studies.