A survey of complementary and alternative medicine in Iran.

OBJECTIVE: To survey the use, capability and satisfaction of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in comparison with conventional medicine in Iran. METHODS: In this national survey, a cross-sectional study was designed, 5,000 people were surveyed to identify predictors of Iranian traditional medicine (ITM) use compared with conventional medicine. Data were collected through a questionnaire that covered three different predictor categories: demographic information, patient's viewpoint, and patients' experiences. RESULTS: Most of the participants preferred government owned hospitals rather than other places. Praying for one's own health was the most frequent and favorable ITM domain (P=0.017) based on patients' interests, both in low- (P=0.08) and high-level (P=0.011) educated subjects. Among the participants, 97.8% had previous conventional medicine history due to their chronic diseases CONCLUSIONS: Iranian patients resort to ITM as a choice at the late stage of the disease. Current deficiency in integration of CAM and conventional medicine is in contrast to the increasing demand on patients' side. Health care organizers should be facilitating the CAM services by tuition of CAM practitioners and supporting eligible CAM centers for diagnosis and treatment of patients.