Awareness, Self-Use, Perceptions, Beliefs, and Attitudes toward Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM) among Health Professional Students in King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

backgroundAround 75% of the world's population relies on the use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) for their healthcare. Thus, we aimed at assessing the attitude and perception of health professional students about CAM and correlate the results with their demographical data.

methodsAn observational cross-sectional study was conducted at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, by enrolling 350 students. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was performed using SPSS.

resultsResults of our data suggested that majority of students were aware of the CAM modalities and considered prayers/spirituality (83.6%), massage (72.5%), nutritional supplements (74.1%), cupping (68.5%), herbal medicine (66.2), and yoga (61.6%) as most effective and least harmful CAM modalities. The students acquired more information about CAM from media (55%), books (56%), friends/relatives (59.7%), and other health professionals (58.4%), however, very little information from formal CAM courses or training (36.7%), which shows the lack of courses and trained health professional in the field of CAM. Despite utilizing nonreliable sources of CAM information, the majority of students had positive attitudes and perceptions about CAM usage. Majority of the students (75.8%) believe in the use of CAM for the mental and spiritual aspect of health and think that CAM providers give good information on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The data also showed a significant (

conclusionIn conclusion, despite the lack of proper courses and professionally trained healthcare providers in the field of CAM, students demonstrated positive attitudes and beliefs toward the safety and effectiveness of CAM.