Using complementary and alternative medicine (cam) on own children by healthcare worker and non-healthcare worker parents

Aim: Present study is done for determining Complementary and Alternative Medicine Methods applied by healthcare worker and non-healthcare worker parents on their children. Method: The sample of research was formed by 213 volantary healthcare staff parents and 187 volantary non-healthcare staff parents having 0-18 years old children who applied to pediatric outpatient department and impatient treatment in two town hospital connected with one of the university hospital in İzmir. Its data were gathered between 2 February and 1 May 2015. In the evaluation of data, the analysis of variation between sociodemographic attributes of parents and their situation of utilizing alternative medicine was evaluated Chi-Square Test. GPOWER 3.1 Software was used for calculating required sample size and power. Findings: 86.9% of healthcare worker parents and 80.2% of non-healthcare worker parents use the least one of CAM methods. Using this methods parents are 82% women and 18% men. It is observed that sociodemographic attributes of parents did not affect CAM using. 2.8% of healthcare worker parents and 2.1% of non-healthcare worker parents in this study received education about CAM. The parents generally experimented this method on their children for healing nausea-vomiting, stomachache, fever, cough-throat ache, anemia, constipation, immunity, diarrhea, pain and intertrigo. 70% of healthcare worker parents and 62.6% of non-healthcare worker parents benefited from CAM. 35.7% of healthcare worker parents and 34.9% of non-healthcare worker parents realized that this method speeded up healing process on symptoms. Result: As a conclusion, there are limited knowledge abaut CAM methods even if the appliers are healthcare workers. Therefore, it is determined that all parents are needed mere information and guiadance abaout CAM metods.