Pharmacy Students' Self-reported Health Behaviours and Spiritual Practices and Attitudes toward Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Keywords:
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), CAM attitudes, CAM use, health behaviours, spiritualityAbstract
Objective: We explored if and how self-reported spiritual practices and health behaviours of pharmacy students correlated with
attitudes toward CAM, CAM use, recommending CAM and seeking CAM evidence.
Method: A secondary analysis of a cross-sectional survey of 437 pharmacy students at the Charles University in Prague in the Czech Republic was conducted using the validated CAM Health Beliefs Questionnaire (CHBQ).
Results: Overall cohort CHBQ mean score was 48.5 (maximum score=70) confirming positive beliefs/attitudes toward CAM irrespective of self-reported health behaviour and spiritual practices. Students with self-reported spiritual practices used twice as many CAM modalities (3.8 vs 2.1; p<0.001); were more likely to recommend CAM therapy to patients (4.6 vs 3.2; p<0.001) and provide them with CAM-related information (6.2 vs 5.3; p=0.021). Positive health behaviour correlated with more self-reported CAM use (p=0.040). No correlation was found between smoking status, regular exercise and CAM use.
Conclusion: Pharmacy trainee’s lifestyle and health behaviours may influence some of their patient care decisions about recommending CAM therapies.
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