Traditional and Complementary Medicine Methods Which Have Become Widespread from The Perspective of Family Physicians and self-Employed Pharmacists; Approaches, Thoughts

INTRODUCTION: Traditional and complementary medicine, which has been defined by the World Health Organization as the whole of knowledge, skills, and practices based on different cultures specific theories, beliefs and experiences, are used in the protection of health through the diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental disorders, has become widespread in our society with the support of the ministry of health on the subject in recent years. We aimed to evaluate the opinions of family physicians and freelance pharmacists working in the city center of Tokat regarding traditional medicine.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study with free pharmacists and family physicians working in the city center of Tokat between 10.12.2019 and 20.12.2019. The data were obtained by a questionnaire, questioning the demographic information and the attitudes of the participants towards traditional treatment methods. Cross-tables and chi-square tests were used to evaluate qualitative variables. In the calculations, statistical software (SPSS Statistics 19) was used.
RESULTS: Regarding the participants, 41 (48.8%) were men and 43 (52.2%) were women. It was observed that there were 12 (14.3%) family medicine specialists, 41 (48.8%) general practitioners, 31 freelance pharmacists (36.9%). The average age was 40.6 (27-71). The rate of receiving traditional and complementary medicine practice training was found to be statistically significantly higher among pharmacists than physicians (p <0.05). However 73.1% of participants who did not receive training stated that they wanted to receive education.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: We would like to emphasize the importance and necessity of taking traditional and complementary medical education programs within the scope of in-service education programs.