Traditional and complementary/alternative medicine use in a South-Asian population

Authors

  • F Amin The Aga Khan UniversityMedical College, Karachi-74800, Pakistan
  • N Islam Government of Pakistan, Shahara-i-Jamhuriat, G-5/2,Islamabad
  • AH Gilani The Aga Khan UniversityMedical College, Karachi-74800, Pakistan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21276/apjhs.2015.2.3.9

Keywords:

Traditional medicine, complementary medicine, alternative medicine, Complementary health provider, self help practices, South-Asian population

Abstract

Traditional, complementary/alternative medicine (CAM/T) is popular in South-Asian countries, where accessibility and cost of conventional medicine is an issue. This survey explores CAM/T use in a sub-urban population in Pakistan. A validated questionnaire was used to survey 355 participants, selected by systematic sampling. Among them 63% believed in the potential of CAM/T to heal while 58% preferred CAM/T over conventional medicine, mainly because of cost-effectiveness. Around 82% had either been to a CAM/T healthcare provider or used selfhelp practices in the last one year for health and 85% said that they do not inform their physicians about CAM/T use. Females were more likely to consult a CAM/T provider for symptoms like back pain, leucorrhoea and body aches. This popularity of CAM/T in our region promotes to gain an insight into the use of CAM/T in communities for integration of CAM/T with conventional healthcare leading to cost-effective and efficient primary healthcare.

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Author Biographies

F Amin, The Aga Khan UniversityMedical College, Karachi-74800, Pakistan

Natural Product Research Unit, Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences,

N Islam, Government of Pakistan, Shahara-i-Jamhuriat, G-5/2,Islamabad

Chairman Pakistan Council for Science and Technology, 

AH Gilani, The Aga Khan UniversityMedical College, Karachi-74800, Pakistan

Natural Product Research Unit, Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 

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Published

2015-09-30

How to Cite

F Amin, N Islam, & AH Gilani. (2015). Traditional and complementary/alternative medicine use in a South-Asian population . Asian Pacific Journal of Health Sciences, 2(3), 36–42. https://doi.org/10.21276/apjhs.2015.2.3.9

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 3 (2015): Vol 2 | Issue 3 | July - September 2015

Section

Table of Contents

License

Asian Pacific Journal of Health Sciences applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license to published articles. Under this license, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their content, but they allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute and/or copy the content as long as the original authors and source are cited. Appropriate attribution can be provided by simply citing the original article.