İnvestigation of traditional and complementary medical approaches of people applying to a family health center in Istanbul

In the study, it was aimed to investigate the sociodemographic characteristics, the effect of their health status, the level of knowledge, the sources from which they provided the information, and to evaluate the opinions after the applications in the approaches of the people to the traditional and complementary medicine (GETAT) practices. A questionnaire was applied to 400 participants who applied to İslambey Family Health Center. While evaluating the data, SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) 21,0 program was used. One-way analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis, Pearson chi-square, Spearman correlation, Logistic regression analysis were used to compare the variables. Statistical significance was accepted at 95% Confidence level, p<0,05. According to the study, the most known GETAT method massage (90%), the least known osteopathy (4,5%). 59,5% of the participants think GETAT is useful, 51,3% of them stated that they use GETAT. Family elders-relatives the biggest factor in starting GETAT (51,2%). It has been observed that women and those with chronic diseases are more likely to apply GETAT, and rate of GETAT use increases with age. It is seen that the society looks warmly to GETAT, although it is cautious. Therefore, it is important for patients to be aware of the harm and side effects of the methods in terms of managing their health. It is also important for public health that healthcare professionals gain competence in this regard, renew their knowledge, and control the media's directions. Keywords: Traditional medicine, complementary medicine, alternative medicine, public health