Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies use and its perceived effectiveness among cardiac patients

Pages: 927-933
Monika Dutta, Parminder Singh, Sandhya Ghai, Geetanjali Garg, Kajal Duggal Pawanpreet Kaur, Priya Dogra, and Mandeep Dhillon (National Institute of Nursing Education (NINE), PGIMER, Chandigarh)

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is one of the health care approaches commonly used by patients with various health problems to promote health or to treat diseases or symptoms. The aim of the present study was to assess the use and perceived effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies among cardiac patients. The study was carried out in cardiology OPD, Advanced Cardiac Centre (ACC), PGIMER, Chandigarh. Descriptive research design was adopted. Data were collected from 530 out-patients who met eligibility criteria using semi-structured interview schedule. The results revealed that the mean age of subjects was 56 years. Most of the subjects were from joint family. Maximum subjects belonged to middle socioeconomic class and believed in Hinduism. Most prevalent diagnosis was CAD with MI and most of them underwent PCI. Among co-morbidities diabetes and hypertension (HTN) were the most common present in the study subjects. Half of the subjects were still in pre-hypertensive stage of HTN with present treatment. Self rated health status was fair for most of the subjects (63%). Among total subjects, 225(42.7%) were using CAM. Among them, mostly half of the subjects were continuing their CAM use with conventional medicine. Ayurveda, homeopathy, garlic, low salt diet, aloevera and exercises were the most preferred CAM approaches used by the subjects. Lesser side effect was the most common reason cited by the users for CAM use. Majority of the subjects perceived CAM use to be effective and were ready to use CAM in future also. The findings suggest that essential steps should be adopted for incorporating those CAM therapies into mainstream health care services for which evidence of effectiveness exists.