HEALTH SERVICE RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS
Please note: All posters will be displayed in Salons 10-12.

THURSDAY, 5:30-6:15 PM

---

Xhignesse M, Koudra F, Donovan D, Arsenault P.

First year medical students' perspective on whether complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) approaches can contribute to health maintenance and/or improvement.

Faculty of medicine, Université de Sherbrooke marianne.xhignesse@USherbrooke.ca

PURPOSE: To determine whether first year medical students believe that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches can contribute to health maintenance and/or improvement, and if so, what approaches are spontaneously identified in this regard.

METHODS: A general questionnaire (16 items) related to health prevention was administered to all incoming first year medical students at the Université de Sherbrooke on their second day of class. Included in the questionnaire was one question related to the use of CAM (no definition provided) in health maintenance and/or improvement. Results presented here relate specifically to this question.

RESULTS: A total of 166 questionnaires were completed out of a possible total of 171 incoming first year medical students (98 women; 66 men; 2 non-identified). Respondents were primarily 21 years of age or younger (83%) with a CEGEP/college education (66%), although 34% had some previous university experience. Seventy-four percent of students (n= 122) stated that in their opinion certain CAM approaches could contribute to improving or maintaining health; 16% (n= 27) believed this not to be the case while 10% (n=17) did not respond to the question. Of the CAM approaches mentioned as contributing to health maintenance and/or improvement, the most commonly identified were: acupuncture 18% (26/142) massage therapy 15% (21/142) and healthy eating habits 9% (12/142). A posteriori classification using the five categories of CAM therapies identified by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative medicine (NCCAM) revealed that students most frequently spontaneously identified approaches within alternative medical systems (24%) and manipulative and body-based methods (24%). Mind-body interventions were mentioned 17% of the time while biologically-based methods and energy therapies were respectively mentioned only 5% and 3% of the time. In addition, 5% of approaches reported could be classified as "mainstream" (ex. ergotherapy, physiotherapy, psychotherapy) while the remaining 22% referred to classic health promotion and disease prevention interventions (ex. exercise, healthy eating habits, etc.)

CONCLUSIONS: A majority of 1st year medical students in our program thought that CAM approaches could contribute to health maintenance or improvement. Interestingly up to 27% of the approaches considered to be CAM are in fact part of mainstream medicine. This suggests the need for a better understanding and common vocabulary when discussing CAM approaches with medical students at the beginning of their training.

 

Back