European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

PREVALENCE AND PATTERNS OF COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE (CAM) USE IN THE TREATMENT OF CANCER IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE - A HOSPITAL BASED STUDY

Dr. Dinesh Kumar, Dr.Naveen Krishan Goel, Dr. Awadhesh Kumar Pandey, Dr. Sandeep Singh Sarpal*

ABSTRACT

Background: In recent years, interest in and use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) have increased. Patients turn to CAM because of varied reasons. A wider exploration of epidemiological patterns of CAM use are of larger interests for management of cancer from patients as well as treating doctors‟ points of view. Objective: To find prevalence and patterns of CAM use among cancer patients. Material and Methods: Present cross-sectional study was conducted at Radiotherapy/Oncology Outpatient Department (OPD) of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), a tertiary healthcare facility in Chandigarh (UT), North India during June 2012 to May 2014. A systematic sampling design was adopted to select patients attending the Radiotherapy OPD of the health facility. Results were expressed by percentages and rates in different subgroups. Information regarding personal and family characteristics, beliefs and practices related with CAM, sources of CAM awareness, perceived reliefs/benefits of CAM use, and positive and negative motivations concerning CAM was collected in privacy. Results: A total of 1,117 cancer patients including 501(44.9%) were males and 616(55.1%) females participated in the study. There were 163(14.6%) patients having family history of cancer. Maximum percentage of users (33.6%) was recorded among elderly patients above 60 years of age. Low Socio- economic status contributed maximum to proportions of CAM use (40.5%). Users represented more by females, Hindus, married patients of low SES, vegetarian, joint families, housewives, less educated patients, having no family history of cancer. Among CAM users, breast cancer contributed 19.4% cases while Head and Neck cancer contributed 10.0% cases. The most common CAM therapy in use was found to be Ayurvedic treatment reported by 187(43.3%) patients followed by Yoga, Meditation being used by 139(32.2%) patients. Overall CAM use was found to be 38.7%. Large gaps exited between awareness and practice of CAM use. Overall proportion of CAM users among there who were aware was found to be (40.0%). Conclusions and Suggestions: Present study concluded that there was high degree of awareness and practice of CAM among cancer patients irrespective of their socio demographic characteristics, type of cancer, etc. Overall CAM use was found to be 38.7%. Large gaps exited between awareness and practice of CAM use. There is an urgent need of conducting further in depth epidemiological studies to evaluate the efficacy of various CAM therapies in use for cancer. Future Research should be also focus on investigating reasons and safety of CAM use.

Keywords: Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM); Conventional Medicine.