A Cross Sectional Study on Utilization of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

The therapies used in combination with conventional medicines are called complementary medicine. Alternative medicine includes therapy that is used in place of conventional medicine. The current study aimed to assess the utilization of complementary and alternative medicine in patients with DM. A cross-sectional study was carried out between 370 patients who visited a private diabetic clinic in Chennai. Data collection employed a structured questionnaire for collecting demographic characteristics, medical history, medication history, social history, types of complementary and alternative medicines used. The mean age of the participants was 56.03 ± 9.26 years. Quite 54.5% of the participants were men. Around 36.5% of diabetic patients have used at least one complementary and alternative treatment among the study population. The most common treatment opted was acupuncture. About 17.3% of the study participants underwent acupuncture treatment. Most of the patients felt satisfied with the usage of complementary and alternative medicines.