Comparison of traditional and complementary medicine use before and after the COVİD-19 pandemic in adults applying to the Akdeniz University Family Medicine outpatient clinic

Objective: Patients over the age of 18 who applied to the Akdeniz University Family Medicine outpatient clinic, agreed to participate in the study and gave consent were included in our study. It is aimed to compare the effects of COVID-19 disease and the differences in the applications made to traditional and complementary medicine practices before and after the pandemic. Method: Our research, which is a descriptive and cross-sectional study, was applied face-to-face through a questionnaire. Sociodemographic characteristics, presence of chronic diseases, knowledge of traditional and complementary medicine practices of the Ministry of Health, reasons for preference, practices they preferred before and after the pandemic, the reasons for the different traditional and complementary medicine practices preferred after the pandemic compared to before the pandemic, were given to the participants who agreed to participate in the study, the research questionnaire consisting of 29 questions measuring the benefit status, knowledge and attitude status, satisfaction status according to the period of time was applied by face-to-face interview technique. Analyzes were performed with IBM SPSS version 26.0. Statistical significance level was accepted as p<0.05. Results: The mean age of 374 participants evaluated within the scope of the study was 44.38±13.45 years (min=18, max=76), 44.7% were between the ages of 40 and 60, 58.8% were female participants, 66%, It consisted of participants, 8 of whom had chronic diseases. Of the participants with chronic diseases, 19.3% had endocrine diseases and 14.4% had cardiovascular diseases, respectively. Considering the state of knowledge about the traditional and complementary medicine practices of the Ministry of Health; While 59.1% know the traditional and complementary medicine practices of the Ministry of Health, the most known application is cuptherapy with 80.7%, followed by hirudotherapy (leech application with 73.8%), phytotherapy with 53.7%, and 52% respectively. ,4 and acupuncture applications. In our study, cuptherapy was the most preferred application for 17.9% of the participants before the pandemic. Phytotherapy is the most preferred application with 11.8% after the pandemic. Cupping therapy is the most preferred application with 24.6% both before and after the pandemic. Knowledge scores of those without chronic disease were found to be higher than those with chronic disease. The knowledge and attitude scores of those who had phytotherapy, ozone, and mesotherapy applications were higher than before the pandemic. Those who prefer apitherapy, phytotherapy and chiropractic practices have higher application and satisfaction scores than after the pandemic.. Conclusion and recommendations: Patients generally do not inform their physicians that they have applied to the GETAT application unless the physicians ask. Many people, including healthcare professionals, resort to such practices. According to the study, the most common reasons for applying to the GETAT application are; for the improvement of well-being, on the recommendation and for the treatment of chronic disease. The source of information is usually non-physician people. For this reason, there may be wrong and erroneous applications. Treatment of COVID-19 needs to be based on evidence. During the pandemic, GETAT practices continued and non-evidence-based practices were used. It is important that family physicians, who can establish a trusting relationship with patients, ask their patients whether they apply GETAT and protect their patients from false and erroneous practices in the context of advocacy.