University Institute for Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Department of Community, Primary Care and Emergency Medicine & Department of Paediatrics, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland.
BMC Complement Med Ther. 2022 May 5;22(1):126. doi: 10.1186/s12906-022-03564-7.
Home remedies are anchored in patients' everyday life, but their use in Western cultures remains scarcely explored. Our objectives were to investigate primary care patients' perspectives and use of non-pharmacological home remedies in Geneva (Switzerland).
In spring 2020, we conducted a cross-sectional survey among adult primary care patients in randomly selected general practices (N = 15). Patients were recruited in the waiting rooms and asked to complete a questionnaire about their sociodemographic characteristics, their home remedy use, and their expectations and reasons for using (or not using) home remedies. We employed descriptive statistics to summarise the data and logistic regression adjusted for clustering within practices to explore associations between home remedy use and participants' sociodemographic characteristics.
Three hundred fourteen of three hundred ninety patients agreed to participate in the study (participation rate 80.5%). Home remedies were used by 64.4% of patients. The main reasons given were for preventive purposes (55.3%), self-care (41.0%), as an alternative to conventional medicine (40.5%) and to avoid or delay a medical consultation (38.5%). One-third of patients considered that it was the GP's role to spontaneously inform them about home remedies (36.4%), another third considered that it was the GP's role to inform them, but only upon specific request (32.3%), and the last third of patients declared that it was not the GP's role to provide information about home remedies (30.3%). Patients living in an urban zone (adjusted OR 2.1; 95%CI 1.0-4.4; p 0.05) and those with a tertiary education background (adjusted OR 1.9; 95%CI 1.0-3.6; p 0.05) believed that it was their GP's role to inform them about home remedies.
Home remedies are used by a majority of primary care patients in Geneva. For a comprehensive and safe healthcare management in the context of patient-oriented medicine, more evidence-based research on efficacy and safety of home remedies as well as their place in primary care consultation is required.
家庭疗法根植于患者的日常生活，但在西方文化中，其使用情况仍鲜有探索。我们的目标是研究日内瓦（瑞士）的初级保健患者对非药物家庭疗法的看法和使用情况。
2020 年春季，我们在随机选择的普通诊所中对成年初级保健患者进行了横断面调查（N=15）。在候诊室招募患者，并要求他们填写一份关于其社会人口特征、家庭疗法使用情况以及使用（或不使用）家庭疗法的期望和原因的问卷。我们采用描述性统计方法总结数据，并采用基于实践的聚类的逻辑回归来探索家庭疗法使用与参与者社会人口特征之间的关联。
在 390 名患者中，有 314 名同意参加研究（参与率为 80.5%）。64.4%的患者使用过家庭疗法。主要原因是预防目的（55.3%）、自我护理（41.0%）、替代传统医学（40.5%）和避免或延迟医疗咨询（38.5%）。三分之一的患者认为，主动向他们提供家庭疗法信息是全科医生的职责（36.4%），另有三分之一的患者认为，只有在特定要求下，全科医生才应向他们提供信息（32.3%），最后三分之一的患者则认为，全科医生没有提供家庭疗法信息的职责（30.3%）。居住在城市地区的患者（调整后的 OR 2.1；95%CI 1.0-4.4；p<0.05）和具有高等教育背景的患者（调整后的 OR 1.9；95%CI 1.0-3.6；p<0.05）认为，向他们提供家庭疗法信息是全科医生的职责。
在日内瓦，大多数初级保健患者都在使用家庭疗法。为了在以患者为中心的医学背景下实现全面和安全的医疗保健管理，需要进行更多关于家庭疗法疗效和安全性及其在初级保健咨询中的地位的基于证据的研究。
