Knowledge, attitude and practice on traditional and complementary medicine among health professionals in Malaysia

6^th World Nursing and Healthcare Conference

August 15-17, 2016 London, UK

Maihebureti Abuduli, Zaleha Md Isa and Syed Mohamed Aljunid

Health Sciences University, Istanbul, Turkey
Xinjiang Uyghur Medical College, Xinjiang, China
Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, UKM Medical Centre
International Centre for Casemix and Clinical Coding (ITCC), UKM Med

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

There is a growing interest in Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM) among the general population, and many patients increasingly seek information on T&CM therapies from health professionals. In many parts of the world including Malaysia, health professionals may neglect the applications of T&CM in their clinical practices and their knowledge in T&CM may not be adequate. The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of T&CM among the health professionals in Malaysia. The design of the study was cross-sectional. A total of 46.3% of the health professionals had ever used T&CM while 48.6% of them had ever referred T&CM to their patients or families in their whole life. Knowledge of T&CM among the health professionals was poor (61.2%), however, majority of them have positive attitude towards T&CM (65.4%) and positive perception on education in T&CM (85.3%). Health professionals who had positive attitude towards T&CM were 1.7 times more likely to practice T&CM in their whole life (p=0.006). Health professionals who had good knowledge on T&CM were 1.6 times more likely to refer T&CM to their patients and families than those who had poor knowledge regarding T&CM (p=0.010). Health professionals who had positive attitude towards T&CM were 2 times more likely to refer T&CM to their patients and families than those who had negative attitude towards T&CM in their whole life (p=0.001). Not a small number of health professionals practiced or referred T&CM, however, knowledge regarding T&CM is still lacking. Therefore, health professionals must have some basic knowledge about T&CM before they could offer advice to their patients. Providing T&CM education to health professionals may help to integrate T&CM into the mainstream medicine, which is beneficial for the Malaysian health care system.

Biography :

Associate Professor Dr. Maihebureti Abuduli has completed her Ph.D. from National University of Malaysia (UKM) and United Nations University – International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH). She has obtained her first degree in Uyghur Traditional Medicine in Xinjiang, China, a Master’s degree in National University of Malaysia. She was formerly a Research Officer in Casemix System at UNU-IIGH, an editorial assistant for the Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine, and an Associate Professor and Head of O&G and Paediatrics Department in Xinjiang Uyghur Medical College. Now, she is an Associate Professor in Health Sciences University in Turkey. To-date she has published 9 books and 21 articles in various health and medical journals.

Email: arzu0704@gmail.com