Complementary and alternative medicine use amongst Turkish type 2 diabetic patients: A cross-sectional study

Background: There is a worldwide tendency in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Type 2 diabetic patients’ attitude towards CAM use differs depending on several patient characteristics. Objective: To determine the awareness, knowledge and the frequency of CAM use; to determine the independent demographic characteristics making it more probable to use CAM in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: 400 patients with T2DM visiting outpatient diabetes education clinic in Turkey from September 2015 to June 2016 were included in this cross-sectional study. On the basis of patients’ responses to our questionnaire interrogating the CAM use, all participants were divided into 2 groups: CAM users and non-users. The independent predictors of CAM use were determined after a multivariate analysis including the parameters with a p value <0.25 in univariate analysis. Results: In our study the rate of CAM use was 36,7% (n = 147) and CAM use among female gender was significantly more frequent. HbA1c, fasting blood glucose, post-prandial blood glucose serum levels were significantly higher in CAM non-user group. (p < 0.001,p < 0.001 and p < 0.001 respectively). The independent predictive factors proved to be a determinant of CAM use were the age of 50–64 years, female gender and healthy eating habits. Conclusions: The use of CAM methods in the field of T2DM is growing. Our study reported the prevalence of CAM use, the baseline comparison of CAM users and non-users and demonstrated three independent notable predictors of CAM use among patients with T2DM.