Primary and Specialty Care Providers' Attitudes towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Objective: This study conducted a direct comparison of the perceptions of and attitudes towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) between family medicine professionals and other specialties using the same survey tool. Design and Setting: This study used the questionnaire adapted from the Wahner-Roedler's study to survey participants in TTUHSC and compared the findings with published Wahner-Roedler's study. A convenient sampling method is used in TTUHSC where all Family Medicine healthcare professionals were recruited. First-hand survey collection is conducted in TTUHSC two Family Medicine Clinics. The Wahner-Roedler's study was conducted in Mayo Clinic and all information was obtained from eCAM. Of the 69 TTUHSC respondents, more than half (56.5%) were female and younger than 36 years. Of the 233 Mayo Clinic respondents, 24% were women, and only 9% of them were younger than 36 years. Main outcome measures: participants' perception of and their familiarity and experience with CAM. Results: The major difference between the two institutions is that a greater proportion of Mayo Clinic physicians reported understanding and feeling comfortable counseling patients about biofeedback (47% vs. 20 %, p<.01), and megavitamin therapy (30% vs. 15%, p<.01) than their counterparts at TTUHSC. More differences in the attitudes lay in the factors that would have impact on convincing them of the effectiveness of CAM. Conclusions: This study did not intend to provide conclusions that can be generalized to all primary care professionals and specialists. Rather it provides some preliminary findings that might lead to further exploration of health-care professional's attitudes towards CAM.