Prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine use among rheumatoid arthritis patients in Saudi Arabia.
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ABSTRACT: Background and aim:The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is unexplored among Saudi rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence and types of CAM used among patients with RA and factors associated with their use. Experimental procedure:A cross-sectional study was conducted at rheumatology clinics in two tertiary hospitals located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The data was collected between May 2017 and February 2018. Unpaired Student's t-tests, Chi-square tests, and Pearson correlation tests were used to compare users vs nonusers. Results:A total of 438 patients (mean age?=?49, SD?±?15?years; 89.7% females) were included in this study. Sixty seven percent of included patients had used CAM for their RA. The majority of CAM users were female (92.1%). The most frequently used CAM products were vitamin D (47%), calcium (37%), honey (15%), ginger (13%), turmeric (11%), black seeds (8%), and fenugreek (8%). One hundred ninety-six (45%) patients believe that CAM is safe, and 287 (96%) patients took it because they believed that CAM had "added benefits". Statistically significant differences were found for gender, RA duration, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) level, and seropositivity between CAM users and nonusers (P?=?0.019, P?=?0.011, P?=?0.022, and P?
SUBMITTER: Almuhareb AM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6978619 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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