<b>Gender Differences in Attitudes regarding Complementary and Alternative Medicine among Health Care Profession Students in Japan</b>

Abstract

which they had positive opinions regarding clinical usefulness and recommendation to patients. [Key words]complementary and alternative medicine, CAM, gender difference, student, attitude INTRODUCTIONThe use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been increasing worldwide in recent years and CAM has been more frequently used by females than by males. In a general population, women are more likely to use CAM and to be interested in receiving CAM [1][2][3][4] . A cross-sectional study in the United States showed a strong association of female gender with CAM use across ethnic minorities 5) . In patients in northern Israel, women visiting primary care clinics used CAM more often than did men 6,7) . Several studies have shown more frequent use of CAM by women than by men for chronic and life-threatening illnesses [8][9][10] . Corbin et al. reported that there was a gender difference among US physicians regarding their interest in CAM education and that female physicians were more likely than male physicians to recommend CAM for pa-.On the other hand, it has been reported that female students in a medical school had significantly more positive attitudes toward CAM than did male students [12][13][14][15] , but several studies have shown no significant difference in gender regarding attitudes toward CAM 16,17) . Therefore, gender difference in theObjective: Gender differences in attitudes toward and knowledge of CAM among health care profession students have not been evaluated in Japan. We examined gender differences in opinions, attitudes and knowledge regarding CAM among Japanese health care profession students. Methods:The subjects of this study were 1465 health care profession students. We used a questionnaire to obtain information on knowledge, sources of information, personal use, interest, willingness to take lectures, opinions regarding effectiveness and willingness to recommend for 17 different CAM modalities. Results:The proportions of female students with sufficient knowledge or a little knowledge of massage, chiropractic, Japanese herbal medicine, aromatherapy, diet, dietary supplements, psychotherapy, yoga and music therapy were significantly higher than the proportions of male students (p < 0.05). The frequencies of personal use of aromatherapy and yoga by female students were significantly higher than those by male students (p < 0.05). Female students had high levels of interest in aromatherapy, massage, yoga and chiropractic, while male students had high levels of interest in Japanese herbal medicine, massage and psychotherapy. Both female and male students had positive opinions regarding clinical usefulness and recommendation for massage, Japanese herbal medicine and psychotherapy (p < 0.05). Conclusions:Female students are more likely to have positive and favorable attitudes toward CAM than are male students in Japan. CAM modalities that female students had an interest in and used were different from CAM modalities for acupuncture, Ayurveda, homeopathy, massage, chiropractic, reflexolo...