Knowledge, attitude and practice on traditional and complementary medicine among health professionals in Malaysia
4th Asia-Pacific Global Summit & Expo on Healthcare
July 18-20, 2016 Brisbane, Australia

Maihebureti Abuduli, Zaleha Md Isa and Syed Mohamed Aljunid

Health Scienecs University, Turkey
Xinjiang Uyghur Medical College, China
UKM Medical Center, Malaysia

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Health Care Current Reviews

Abstract:

There is a growing interest in Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM) among the general population, and many patients increasingly seek information on T&CM therapies from health professionals. In many parts of the world including Malaysia, health professionals may neglect the applications of T&CM in their clinical practices and their knowledge in T&CM may not be adequate. The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of T&CM among the health professionals in Malaysia. The design of the study was cross-sectional. A total of 46.3% of the health professionals had ever used T&CM while 48.6% of them had ever referred T&CM to their patients or families in their whole life. Knowledge of T&CM among the health professionals was poor (61.2%), however, majority of them have positive attitude towards T&CM (65.4%) and positive perception on education in T&CM (85.3%). Health professionals who had positive attitude towards T&CM were 1.7 times more likely to practice T&CM in their whole life (p=0.006). Health professionals who had good knowledge on T&CM were 1.6 times more likely to refer T&CM to their patients and families than those who had poor knowledge regarding T&CM (p=0.010). Health professionals who had positive attitude towards T&CM were 2 times more likely to refer T&CM to their patients and families than those who had negative attitude towards T&CM in their whole life (p=0.001). Not a small number of health professionals practiced or referred T&CM, however, knowledge regarding T&CM is still lacking. Therefore, health professionals must have some basic knowledge about T&CM before they could offer advice to their patients. Providing T&CM education to health professionals may help to integrate T&CM into the mainstream medicine, which is beneficial for the Malaysian health care system.

Biography :

Maihebureti Abuduli, Associate Professor, has completed her PhD from National University of Malaysia (UKM) and United Nations University - International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH). She has obtained her first degree in Uyghur Traditional Medicine in Xinjiang, China, a Master’s degree in National University of Malaysia. She was formerly a Research Officer in Casemix System at UNU-IIGH, an Editorial Assistant for the Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine, and an Associate Professor and Head of O&G and Paediatrics Department in Xinjiang Uyghur Medical College. Now, she is an Associate Professor in Health Sciences University in Turkey. To-date she has published 9 books and 21 articles in various health and medical journals.

Email: arzu0704@gmail.com