Complementary medicine utilization and practices of self-medication in the field practice areas of a medical college of district Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka, India

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Complementary modalities have been established globally but lack of sufficient data on their utilization patterns hinders the mainstreaming with the existing health care delivery system. The concerning issues are especially of self-medication and usage of complementary medicines with or without the usage of allopathic drugs. AIM: The study aims to find out the prevalence of complementary medicine utilization and prevalence of self-medication amongst the people in the field practice areas of the medical college. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2018 to January 2019. The International questionnaire for the use of Complementary and alternative systems of Medicine was used to interview the 451 study participants. The results were expressed in percentages and proportions. Chi-square test was used to find out the association of sociodemographic variables with the use of complementary medicine and self-medication practices. RESULTS: Overall prevalence of utilizing the complementary medicine services were found to be 17.7%. About 14.6% and 2.9% of the study participants visited ayurvedic and homeopathic practitioners, respectively for the past 12 months. A significantly higher proportion of the rural population was utilizing the services of the complementary system of medical practitioners. Other sociodemographic variables were not found to be associated with the utilization of complementary medicine services. The prevalence of self-medication practices was found to be 25.9%. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of complementary medicine utilization was lower than the prevalence of self-medication practices. Rural area study participants accessed more services of a complementary system of medical practitioners.