Department of Chest Diseases, Ankara Atatürk Education and Research Hospital, Turkey.
Am J Chin Med. 2012;40(4):671-83. doi: 10.1142/S0192415X12500504.
Considering the popularity of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in allergic patients, physicians involved in allergic patients' care need to be aware of CAM. To assess self-reported knowledge, attitude and approach to CAM of physicians who deal with allergic patients, a total of 500 structured questionnaires were distributed to physicians who participated in "Turkish National Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Congress-2009". For the questionnaires handed out, 242 (48.4%) physicians (median age 36.0 years, range 25-64 years) responded; 22.4% were fellows in training and 48.5% were residents. The main specialties were pediatrics (49.3%), and pulmonology (36.8%); half were either specialists or training in allergy and one-quarter (25.6%) referred patients to CAM. Asthma (42.1%) and chronic urticaria (28.9%) were the most common CAM referral diseases. Referred therapies were herbal (10.3%) and diet-based medicine (7.4%). The differences between physicians in terms of age, gender, experience in medicine, and specialty/allergy subspecialty were not statistically significant (p = 0.01). Affiliation to a university hospital was significantly associated with no CAM referral vs. affiliation in a state/private hospital or private practice. Academic degree and reported level of knowledge negatively/positively affected attitudes toward CAM, respectively. More than half of the respondents (68.8%) reported lack of or insufficient information about CAM, while 58.7% of physicians desired CAM education. This first report on physicians involved in allergic patients' care shows that they are reluctant to refer for CAM therapies. A minority believes that they have enough knowledge, and most are interested in continuing medical education on CAM. Considering physicians' interest and tendency to communicate significantly with their patients about CAM when they feel that they have sufficient knowledge and popularity of CAM among patients, training possibilities should be created to improve physicians' education in this field.
考虑到补充和替代医学（CAM）在过敏患者中的流行，参与过敏患者护理的医生需要了解 CAM。为了评估处理过敏患者的医生对 CAM 的自我报告的知识、态度和方法，向参加“2009 年土耳其过敏与临床免疫学学会大会”的医生共发放了 500 份结构问卷。发放的问卷中，有 242 名（48.4%）医生（中位数年龄 36.0 岁，范围 25-64 岁）做出了回应；22.4%为住院医师培训生，48.5%为住院医师。主要专业为儿科（49.3%）和肺病科（36.8%）；一半的医生是过敏专科医生或正在接受培训，四分之一（25.6%）的医生将患者转介至 CAM。哮喘（42.1%）和慢性荨麻疹（28.9%）是最常见的 CAM 转介疾病。转介的治疗方法包括草药（10.3%）和饮食为基础的药物（7.4%）。医生在年龄、性别、医学经验和专业/过敏亚专业方面的差异无统计学意义（p=0.01）。与在大学医院工作的医生相比，在州/私立医院或私人诊所工作的医生更倾向于不将患者转介至 CAM。学术学位和报告的知识水平分别对 CAM 的态度产生负面影响/正面影响。超过一半的受访者（68.8%）报告缺乏或信息不足关于 CAM，而 58.7%的医生希望接受 CAM 教育。这是第一份关于参与过敏患者护理的医生的报告，表明他们不愿意转介 CAM 治疗。少数医生认为他们有足够的知识，大多数医生对关于 CAM 的继续医学教育感兴趣。考虑到医生的兴趣和倾向，当他们认为自己有足够的知识和 CAM 在患者中的流行程度时，会与患者就 CAM 进行沟通，应创造培训机会，以提高医生在这一领域的教育水平。
