Almuhareb Aseel M, Alhawassi Tariq M, Alghamdi Ahmed A, Omair Mohammed A, Alarfaj Hussain, Alarfaj Abdulrahman, Alomari Bedor A, Alblowi Maysoon S, Almalag Haya M
Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Medication Safety Research Chair, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Pharm J. 2019 Nov;27(7):939-944. doi: 10.1016/j.jsps.2019.07.002. Epub 2019 Jul 8.
The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is unexplored among Saudi rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence and types of CAM used among patients with RA and factors associated with their use.
A cross-sectional study was conducted at rheumatology clinics in two tertiary hospitals located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The data was collected between May 2017 and February 2018. Unpaired Student's -tests, Chi-square tests, and Pearson correlation tests were used to compare users vs nonusers.
A total of 438 patients (mean age = 49, SD ± 15 years; 89.7% females) were included in this study. Sixty seven percent of included patients had used CAM for their RA. The majority of CAM users were female (92.1%). The most frequently used CAM products were vitamin D (47%), calcium (37%), honey (15%), ginger (13%), turmeric (11%), black seeds (8%), and fenugreek (8%). One hundred ninety-six (45%) patients believe that CAM is safe, and 287 (96%) patients took it because they believed that CAM had "added benefits". Statistically significant differences were found for gender, RA duration, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) level, and seropositivity between CAM users and nonusers (P = 0.019, P = 0.011, P = 0.022, and P < 0.0001, respectively). A significant correlation was found between the Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) level, RA duration and CAM use (r = 0.110, P = 0.022 and r = 0.121, P = 0.012, respectively). These data indicated that patients who used CAM had higher ESR level and longer disease duration than patients didn't use CAM.
There is a high prevalence of CAM use among RA patients. CAM use was perceived to add benefit and patients using it had higher ESR. Larger studies are needed to assess the use of CAM and its impact on RA and its management.
沙特类风湿关节炎（RA）患者对补充和替代医学（CAM）的使用情况尚未得到研究。本研究的目的是评估RA患者中CAM的使用 prevalence 及类型，以及与使用相关的因素。
在沙特阿拉伯利雅得的两家三级医院的风湿病诊所进行了一项横断面研究。数据收集于2017年5月至2018年2月之间。使用未配对学生 t 检验、卡方检验和皮尔逊相关检验来比较使用者与非使用者。
本研究共纳入438例患者（平均年龄 = 49岁，标准差 ± 15岁；89.7%为女性）。纳入患者中有67%曾使用CAM治疗RA。大多数CAM使用者为女性（92.1%）。最常使用的CAM产品是维生素D（47%）、钙（37%）、蜂蜜（15%）、姜（13%）、姜黄（11%）、黑籽（8%）和胡芦巴（8%）。196例（45%）患者认为CAM是安全的，287例（96%）患者使用它是因为他们认为CAM有“额外益处”。在CAM使用者和非使用者之间，在性别、RA病程、红细胞沉降率（ESR）水平和血清阳性方面发现了统计学上的显著差异（分别为P = 0.019、P = 0.011、P = 0.022和P < 0.0001）。在红细胞沉降率（ESR）水平、RA病程和CAM使用之间发现了显著相关性（分别为r = 0.110，P = 0.022和r = 0.121，P = 0.012）。这些数据表明，使用CAM的患者比未使用CAM的患者具有更高的ESR水平和更长的病程。
RA患者中CAM的使用率很高。患者认为使用CAM有好处，且使用CAM的患者ESR更高。需要进行更大规模的研究来评估CAM的使用及其对RA及其管理的影响。
