Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Lebanon.
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2012 Aug 20;12:129. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-12-129.
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is widely used for the treatment of infertility. While the Middle East and North Africa region has been shown to house one of the fastest growing markets of CAM products in the world, research describing the use of CAM therapies among Middle-Eastern infertile patients is minimal. The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence, characteristics and determinants of CAM use among infertile patients in Lebanon.
A cross sectional survey design was used to carry out face-to-face interviews with 213 consecutive patients attending the Assisted Reproductive Unit at a major academic medical center in Beirut. The questionnaire comprised three sections: socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics, infertility-related aspects and information on CAM use. The main outcome measure was the use of CAM modalities for infertility treatment. Determinants of CAM use were assessed through the logistic regression method.
Overall, 41% of interviewed patients reported using a CAM modality at least once for their infertility. There was a differential by gender in the most commonly used CAM therapies; where males mostly used functional foods (e.g. honey & nuts) (82.9%) while females mostly relied on spiritual healing/prayer (56.5%). Factors associated with CAM use were higher household income (OR: 0.305, 95% CI: 0.132-0.703) and sex, with females using less CAM than males (OR: 0.12, 95% CI: 0.051-0.278). The older patients were diagnosed with infertility, the lower the odds of CAM use (p for trend <0.05). Almost half of the participants (48%) were advised on CAM use by their friends, and only 13% reported CAM use to their physician.
The considerably high use of CAM modalities among Lebanese infertile patients, added to a poor CAM use disclosure to physicians, underscore the need to integrate CAM into the education and training of health professionals, as well as enhance infertile patients' awareness on safe use of CAM products.
补充和替代医学（CAM）被广泛用于治疗不孕症。虽然中东和北非地区是世界上增长最快的 CAM 产品市场之一，但有关中东地区不孕患者使用 CAM 疗法的研究却很少。本研究旨在探讨黎巴嫩不孕患者使用 CAM 的流行率、特征和决定因素。
采用横断面调查设计，对贝鲁特一家主要学术医疗中心辅助生殖科的 213 例连续就诊患者进行面对面访谈。问卷包括三部分：社会人口统计学和生活方式特征、与不孕相关的方面以及关于 CAM 使用的信息。主要结局指标是使用 CAM 方式治疗不孕症。通过逻辑回归方法评估 CAM 使用的决定因素。
总体而言，接受访谈的患者中有 41%至少使用过一种 CAM 方式治疗不孕症。在最常用的 CAM 疗法中，男女之间存在差异；男性大多使用功能性食品（如蜂蜜和坚果）（82.9%），而女性大多依赖精神治疗/祈祷（56.5%）。与 CAM 使用相关的因素是较高的家庭收入（OR：0.305，95%CI：0.132-0.703）和性别，女性使用 CAM 的比例低于男性（OR：0.12，95%CI：0.051-0.278）。患者被诊断为不孕症的时间越长，使用 CAM 的可能性就越低（趋势检验 p<0.05）。近一半的参与者（48%）是从朋友那里获得 CAM 使用的建议，只有 13%的人向医生报告了 CAM 使用情况。
黎巴嫩不孕患者相当高的 CAM 使用率，加上对医生的 CAM 使用披露不佳，强调了将 CAM 纳入卫生专业人员的教育和培训的必要性，以及提高不孕患者对 CAM 产品安全使用的认识。
