[Attitudes, knowledge and use of complementary and alternative medicine among perioperative healthcare professionals]. / Komplementer terápiás gyógymódok megítélése a perioperatív ellátásban dolgozó egészségügyi szakdolgozók között.

INTRODUCTION: Perioperative healthcare professionals' attitudes towards non-conventional treatments have not been explored in Hungary yet. AIM: Our goal was to survey healthcare professionals' attitude and knowledge towards naturopathy in six clinics of the Semmelweis University that provide perioperative care. METHOD: An anonymous, paper-based questionnaire was used. With an 82% response rate, the data was gained from 119 questionnaires and was processed using statistical analysis and chi-squared test. RESULTS: Only 25.2% of those surveyed considered themselves to be well-informed in this field. 68.1% of the participants had an interest in naturopathy and 60.5% would have liked to learn about naturopathy. 70.6% would be willing to use non-conventional treatments in their daily work, predominantly those who have used these methods in the case of their own illness, p = 0.0027. The most popular treatment methods included homeopathy, alternative massage and movement therapy, acupuncture and manual therapy. CONCLUSION: As anticipated based on international literature in this field, those Hungarian healthcare professionals who took part in our survey showed openness and interest towards naturopathy. Orv. Hetil., 2017, 158(10), 368-375.

Complementary and alternative medicine: attitudes, knowledge and use among surgeons and anaesthesiologists in Hungary.

BACKGROUND: Despite their worldwide popularity the question of using non-conventional treatments is a source of controversy among medical professionals. Although these methods may have potential benefits it presents a problem when patients use non-conventional treatments in the perioperative period without informing their attending physician about it and this may cause adverse events and complications. To prevent this, physicians need to have a profound knowledge about non-conventional treatments. METHODS: An anonymous questionnaire was distributed among surgeons and anaesthesiologists working in Hungarian university clinics and in selected city or county hospitals. Questionnaires were distributed by post, online or in person. Altogether 258 questionnaires were received from 22 clinical and hospital departments. RESULTS: Anaesthesiologists and surgeons use reflexology, Traditional Chinese Medicine, herbal medicine and manual therapy most frequently in their clinical practice. Traditional Chinese Medicine was considered to be the most scientifically sound method, while homeopathy was perceived as the least well-grounded method. Neural therapy was the least well-known method among our subjects. Among the subjects of our survey only 3.1 % of perioperative care physicians had some qualifications in non-conventional medicine, 12.4 % considered themselves to be well-informed in this topic and 48.4 % would like to study some complementary method. Women were significantly more interested in alternative treatments than men, p = 0.001427; OR: 2.2765. Anaesthesiologists would be significantly more willing to learn non-conventional methods than surgeons. 86.4 % of the participants thought that non-conventional treatments should be evaluated from the point of view of evidence. Both surgeons and anaesthesiologists accept the application of integrative medicine and they also approve of the idea of teaching these methods at universities. CONCLUSIONS: According to perioperative care physicians, non-conventional methods should be evaluated based on evidence. They also expressed a willingness to learn about those treatments that meet the criteria of evidence and apply these in their clinical practice.

[Complementary and alternative medicine use in surgical patients]. / Nem konvencionális gyógymódok használata sebészeti betegek között.

INTRODUCTION: Due to the rise in use of non-conventional therapies, we may consider the application of those in perioperative setting. AIM: The aims of the authors were to measure the attitude of patients waiting for elective surgery towards naturopathic methods, to determine their use and factors influencing their usage. METHOD: A questionnaire was applied that patients filled in individually and anonymously at the First Department of Surgery of Semmelweis University, between July 1, 2014 and April 30, 2016. RESULTS: 63.6% of the 519 participants (response rate = 21%) were interested in non-conventional therapies, and 26.8% of them applied naturopathy. In this group there were significantly more females (p = 0.022; OR: 1.066-2.3635), patients with university degree (p = 0.000315; OR: 1.3915-3.1132), aged 40-49 (p = 0.012419; OR: 1.1451-3.2405), and patients with hormonal disease (p = 0.039482; OR: 1.0186-5.7242). In terms of lifetime prevalence the most popular methods were traditional Chinese medicine (8.9%), alternative movement and massage therapy (7.5%) and homeopathy (7.3%). Only 12.9% of the patients reported the application of these methods to the physician. CONCLUSION: Surgical patients are interested in naturopathic methods, and one-fourth of them actually use them even in the perioperative period. Orv. Hetil., 2016, 157(37), 1483-1488.