Complementary & traditional medicine – related knowledge, opinions and behaviours of adults residing in the selected neighbourhoods of altindağ district

Aksoy Ö. "Complementary & Traditional Medicine – Related Knowledge, Opinions and Behaviours of Adults Residing in the Selected Neighbourhoods of Altındağ District" Hacettepe University Health Sciences Institute Public Health Department Master Degree Thesis, Ankara, 2018. There are very few community-based surveys on Traditional or Complementary Therapy Methods in our country. For this reason, a field study was conducted with 780 participants (96.5% participation rate, 54.7% female) representing twelve neighbourhoods in Altındağ district in the city of Ankara in order to determine the knowledge, opinions and behaviours about Traditional and Complementary Treatment Methods. 52.5% of the participants are regularly going to supplement store (so called 'aktar') and 60.0% of participants who regularly goes to supplement store are buying health-related products. 79.2% of respondents stated that they were applying a physician for a solution when they have a health problem and 20.4% applied some traditional ways of healing as a first job when they had a health problem and also 40.0% of the participants stated that they tend to apply/use Traditional /Complementary Therapy Method, if it is suggested to them. In our study, it was determined that 6.6% of the participants were currently using /applying and 5.9% of them used/applied Traditional /Complementary Therapy Method in the last year. In the research group, the most commonly used method among all methods was "Linden (flower-leaf) use while the least effective method is "Chiropractic or Osteopathic Manipulation ". It was found that the variables indicating gender, age, educational status, healthy eating behaviours, BMI and social relations were not statistically significant among the whole participants however it has been determined that in the subgroup analyses participants which have low and very high education levels, have children, married, buys health related product from supplement store, have regular internet access and use internet regularly statistically tend to use/apply method more often. Key Words: adults, behaviour, Complementary/Alternative Medicine, knowledge, opinion, Traditional Medicine. This research was supported by the Scientific Research Unit of Hacettepe University with a project number of 012 D06 101 003.