Objective
Nowadays, there are compelling data on the increase in traditional and complementary medicine practices in adults. Although the use of complementary medicine practices in children is frequently observed, studies on children are more limited in this subject. Studies on children mostly include those with chronic diseases. Our study aimed to evaluate the use of traditional and complementary medicine therapies in children without chronic diseases and parents' knowledge.
Materials and Methods
The study was conducted at Bağcılar Training and Research Hospital Pediatric Clinic between 1 December 2018 and 28 February 2019. In the study, 200 patients in the 0-15 age group without any known chronic diseases were included. A questionnaire form was applied to either mothers or fathers of the patients, and the practices they performed in traditional medicine, their knowledge, and experience, and their socioeconomic-cultural status were questioned.
Results
In our study, which evaluated the use of traditional and complementary medicine methods in children without chronic diseases, 95.5% of the children had a history of the use of at least one complementary medicine method. The use of herbal tea was the most preferred complementary medicine method (68.8%). Other methods were the use of immune boosters, prayers, massage, nutrition-diet, acupuncture, and music.
More than half of the patients (56%) had heard or learned about complementary medicine methods from their family elders. The rate of those who had learned about them from the media was determined to be 14%, and the rate of those who had learned from their friends was found to be 6.5%. The low rate of only 3.5% had learned about the complementary medicine method from healthcare personnel.
Conclusion
It is observed that traditional and complementary medicine practices have been started to be widely used also in children. We think that it would be healthier for families to learn these practices from conscious sources.
Key words: traditional and complementary medicine, children, parents
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