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Psychological predictors of the use of complementary and alternative medicines during pregnancy within a sample of Swiss women.

ABSTRACT: Past works have witnessed increased prevalence of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) among women during pregnancy. This study aimed to identify psychological antecedents underlying CAM use through the exploration of various predictors. Drawing upon the literature on the use of CAM in contexts unrelated to pregnancy, this research explored the role of various predictors: perceived stress, beliefs about medicine, health locus of control (HLOC), health literacy, bullshit receptivity, and belief in conspiracy theories (CT). 376 Swiss women were recruited to complete a web-based questionnaire in which the use of different kinds of CAM was investigated. We performed hierarchical regression analyses with backward method to assess the overall variance explained by the predictors, as well as their unique contributions. We measured the number of CAM used during last pregnancy and frequency of use. Analyses showed that CAM use was positively associated with perceived stress, beliefs about medicine, internal HLOC, and belief in CT. In contrast, negative relationships were found with external HLOC, bullshit receptivity, and health literacy. By illuminating such factors, this research contributed to explaining why women may be tempted to choose CAM in place of conventional medicine, which may be of particular interest for health professionals in the planning of communication strategies aimed at limiting risks associated to their use during pregnancy.

SUBMITTER: Blonde J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7270638 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Psychological predictors of the use of complementary and alternative medicines during pregnancy within a sample of Swiss women.

Blondé Jérôme J Desrichard Olivier O Kaiser Barbara B

Health psychology research 20200526 1

Past works have witnessed increased prevalence of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) among women during pregnancy. This study aimed to identify psychological antecedents underlying CAM use through the exploration of various predictors. Drawing upon the literature on the use of CAM in contexts unrelated to pregnancy, this research explored the role of various predictors: perceived stress, beliefs about medicine, health locus of control (HLOC), health literacy, bullshit receptivity, and ...[more]

PMID: 32529091

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Project description:BackgroundIntegrative and complementary health approaches (ICHA) are often pursued by patients facing chronic illnesses. Most of the studies that investigated the factors associated with ICHA consumption have considered that the propensity to use ICHA is a stable or fixed characteristic of an individual. However, people may prefer using ICHA in some situations and not in others, depending on the characteristics of the illness to face. Moreover, the attitude toward ICHA may differ within a single individual and between individuals so that ICHA can be used either in addition to (i.e., complementary attitude) or in place of (i.e., alternative attitude). The present study aimed at examining distinct patterns of attitudes toward ICHA in people hypothetically facing chronic illnesses that differed according to severity and clinical expression.MethodsWe conducted a web-based study including 1807 participants who were asked to imagine that they had a particular chronic illness based on clinical vignettes (mental illnesses: depression, schizophrenia; somatic illnesses: rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis). Participants were invited to rate their perceived distress and social stigma associated with each illness as well as its perceived treatability. They also rated their belief in treatment effectiveness, and their treatment preference. Four patterns of treatment choice were determined: strictly conventional, weak or strong complementary, and alternative. Bayesian methods were used for statistical analyses.ResultsICHA were selected as complementary treatment option by more than 95% of people who hypothetically faced chronic illness. The complementary attitude towards ICHA (in addition to conventional treatment) was more frequent than the alternative one (in place of conventional treatment). Factors driving this preference included employment status, severity of illness, age and perceived distress, social stigma and treatability of the illness. When the label of illnesses was included in the vignettes, patterns of treatment preference were altered.ConclusionsThis study provides evidence that "medical pluralism" (i.e., the integration of ICHA with conventional treatment) is likely the norm for people facing both mental or somatic illness. However, our result must be interpreted with caution due to the virtual nature of this study. We suggest that taking attitudes toward ICHA into account is crucial for a better understanding of patients' motivation to use ICHA.

Project description:BackgroundDementia is causing a huge medical and socioeconomic burden. Along with strategies to delay cognitive decline in dementia, behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are major contributing factor to the burden of dementia, and have been an important clinical issue for successful management of dementia. However, pharmacological strategies such as antipsychotics raise concerns in terms of risk-to-benefit ratio in managing BPSD. Therefore, there is a need for an effective and safe alternative in BPSD management. From this point of view, various complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs) are attracting attention in BPSD management. Therefore, the overview will make it possible to evaluate the feasibility of using CAM as a potential treatment strategy for BPSD in terms of evidence-based medicine.Methods and analysisComprehensive searching will be performed in 13 bibliographic databases from their inception dates to November 2021. Systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses that examined the effectiveness and safety of CAM modalities including herbal medicine, acupuncture, acupressure, aromatherapy, meditation, and relaxation on BPSD, will be included. The methodological quality of included reviews will be assessed by using the A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews-2. Two independent researchers will conduct study search, study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment processes.ResultsThe results of overview will be disseminated by the publication of a manuscript in a peer-reviewed journal or presentation at a relevant conference.ConclusionThe findings of this overview will help to solve the major public health problem related to dementia, and will provide patients with dementia, their caregivers, clinicians, and health policy makers credible evidence in mitigating the burden of dementia.Ethics and disseminationAs this protocol is for an overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, ethical approval is not required.Protocol registration numberOpen Science Framework registry (https://osf.io/g5f3m).

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Psychological predictors of the use of complementary and alternative medicines during pregnancy within a sample of Swiss women.

Publications

Psychological predictors of the use of complementary and alternative medicines during pregnancy within a sample of Swiss women.

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