Herbal Medicine: Open Access

Prevalence of integrative/alternative medication use among primary care patients

Context: Integrative medicine provides a patient-centered approach to improving and enhancing the therapeutic methods of treating primary care problems. Often, many patients are utilizing such alternative methods due to their own cultural beliefs and backgrounds.

Objective: This study is to determine the prevalence of integrative/alternative medicine amongst our primary care patients and whether any associations are present between specific regions or cultures as well as educational levels.

Human Subjects Review: IRB approved as an exempt study.

Design: Cross Sectional Survey.

Setting: Ambulatory primary care practice. Eligibility criteria 18 years and older. An inclusion criterion includes the ability to read and write English and Spanish. Exclusion criteria patients under the age of 18 and patients without capacity to consent will be excluded from survey. Numbers of participants: 500.

Anticipated Results: Anticipate that patients are utilizing integrative medicine practices and are willing to include these practices in their formal treatment plans in the future. Anticipate that there are associations between engagement in alternative/integrative practices and patient ethnicity/nationality as well as educational level.

Conclusions: This study is in progress. The knowledge gained from the study will be used to educate physicians to support culturally-informed patient care. We will also the information from this study to devise patient education materials and develop integrative therapeutic plans.

Author(s):

Amanda Santa Maria

Abstract | PDF

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