The Use of Traditional and Complementary Medicine in Dermatological and Other Diseases During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Turkey Traditional and Complementary Medicine Preferences of Patients in Turkey During Pandemic

Abstract

Objective: Traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) is generally applied for the purposes of preventing, diagnosing, treating diseases and maintaining a healthy state. The number of people applying T&CM practices tends to increase day by day. The aim of this study was to determine the use of T&CM in dermatological and other diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials and Methods: A questionnaire form developed by the researchers was used as data collection tool in this cross-sectional and descriptive study. The sample of the study consisted of Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University University Medicine Faculty 3rd year students and their relatives (n=331). The participants were reached by the convenience sampling method. Descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of the data.

Results: It was determined that 50.5% of the participants benefited from T&CM. 31.7% of the participants used these practices after March 2020 and 39% benefited from them. According to the participants, the most beneficial T&CM method was the herbal method and the most important source of information about T&CM was the immediate vicinity (32.3%). While the rate of use of T&CM was 36.7% before the pandemic, this rate was determined as 31.7% after the pandemic.

Conclusion: The results obtained showed that T&CM methods are important practices in terms of dermatological and other health problems. However, unexpectedly, participants' use of T&CM during the pandemic period decreased compared to the pre-pandemic period. In this regard, we consider that comparative prospective multicenter studies including other cities will be more enlightening on this issue.